HI  EX  LI  BRISK 

|MI 


MERCHANDISING  STUDIES 
OF  THE  STATES 

Their  Resources  and  Development 


By 

ARCHER   WALL  DOUGLAS 

Chairman,    Committee   on   Statistics   and    Stand- 
ards of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the  United 
States;  Author  of  "Traveling  Salesmanship"  and 
"Merchandising" 

With  Preface  by 
MERLE   THORPE 


NEW  YORK 

THE  RONALD  PRESS  COMPANY 
1920 


Copyright,  1920,  by 
THE  RONALD  PRESS  COMPANY 

All  Rights  Reserved 


PREFACE 

The  ambitious  man,  professional  or  business,  longs  to 
extend  his  field  of  operations.  That  is  the  yardstick  of 
success.  If  a  man  stands  still,  after  a  while  friends — and 
enemies — begin  to  talk  quietly  about  him.  So  the  enter- 
prising man  searches  for  new  fields,  scrutinizes  new  op- 
portunities. 

Every  business  is  a  shadow  of  some  one  man.  Some 
shadows  are  short;  some  tremendously  long.  The  long 
shadows  come  from  the  man  who  sees  beyond  his  town- 
ship, county,  state,  continent.  Subtract  the  factors  in- 
volved in  a  small  business  of  $1,000  a  year  from  those 
of  a  business  of  $1,000,000  a  year,  and  you  will  get  (i) 
desire;  (2)  ambition;  (3)  ability. 

See  America  first!  The  proposition  is  so  simple  I 
hesitate  to  set  it  down.  Many  young  and  ambitious 
business  men  wrinkle  their  brows  and  study  possibilities 
in  China,  India,  and  South  America,  overlooking  those 
nearer  at  home.  The  leap  into  successful  trade  overseas 
is  much  shorter  from  a  well-established  domestic  trade — 
and  more  natural.  Wonderful  opportunities  lie  in  Arkan- 
sas, North  Carolina,  Michigan. 

Mr.  Douglas  gives  us  in  these  "Merchandising  Studies 
of  the  States"  the  benefit  of  a  far-sighted  business 
man's  survey  of  these  domestic  possibilities  which  lie 
outside  our  own  door.  Don't  be  misled!  There  is  no 
dark  formula  here  for  the  reader  who  wishes  to  enlarge 
his  business — that  cannot  be  given;  if  it  could,  all  the 
zest  would  be  taken  out  of  the  contest.  But  there  is 
here  for  the  man  who  will  patiently  fill  in  between  the 

iii 

442102 


iv  PREFACE 

lines,  a  chart  drawn  by  one  of  America's  successful  busi- 
ness men,  which  will  point  the  way  to  longer  shadows  and 
greater  turnovers. 

MERLE  THORPE 
Washington,  D.  C, 
November  15,  1920. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 
Introduction 3 

Arkansas 19 

Kansas ' 40 

North  Carolina 55 

Wisconsin 75 

Ohio 93 

Texas no 

Colorado 131 

California 153 

Epilogue 170 


MERCHANDISING  STUDIES 
OF  THE  STATES 


INTRODUCTION 

Forehandedness 

Every  business  of  moment  with  country-wide  con- 
nections and  national  interests  must  take  some  thought 
of  the  morrow.  If  it  hopes  not  only  to  hold  its  own  but 
to  make  that  steady  progress  which  marks  and  dis- 
tinguishes the  successful  commercial  organization,  it  must 
forecast  its  movements  and  plan  of  development,  not  in 
periods  of  months  but  rather  by  decades,  and  it  may  be 
by  scores  of  years. 

In  every  phase  of  business  life  that  looks  to  the 
fruition  of  its  activities  there  is  always  necessary  the 
perception  of  great  changes  and  great  opportunities 
before  they  occur  and  not  afterwards.  A  business  enter- 
prise is  not  an  isolated  unit  working  out  its  own  salva- 
tion alone,  but  depends  upon  and  is  a  part  of  the  history 
of  progress  and  development  of  the  section  of  country 
in  which  it  finds  a  market  for  its  wares.  It  must  know 
not  only  the  existing  conditions  of  the  people  and  coun- 
try which  it  serves  but  likewise  the  potentialities  and 
possibilities  of  their  future  development.  The  means 
thereto  is  such  close  and  intimate  study  of  the  situation 
as  discloses  both  its  present  likelihood  and  also  what 
the  future  holds  in  store. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  these  chapters  to  set  forth  the 
story  of  certain  states,  as  types  of  those  studies  in  the 
development  of  the  country  that  must  be  part  of  the 
policy  of  every  great  organization  which  seeks  to  found 
its  business  upon  intelligent  study  of  the  possibilities  and 
likelihoods  of  the  future. 

3 


4  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

Vision 

It  is  a  matter  of  common  experience  that  shrewd  in- 
vestors have  amassed  great  fortunes  by  early  investments 
in  unimproved  lands  which  later  became  very  valuable 
either  for  farm  purposes  or  for  building  operations  in 
great  cities.  This  success  is  usually  ascribed  to  mere 
blind  luck.  But  it  is  oftener  the  result  of  far-sighted 
vision  which  perceived  and  analyzed  the  inevitable  drift 
of  civilization  to  the  region  in  which  the  investment  was 
made.  In  the  case  of  a  potential  great  city,  as  St.  Louis 
on  the  Mississippi  or  Chicago  on  the  Great  Lakes,  the 
problem  was  the  direction  which  the  growth  of  the  city 
would  take.  Would  it  be  westward  as  history  shows  is 
usually  the  case,  or  would  it  be  north  or  south  along  the 
water's  edge?  It  was  usually  sure  that  manufacturing 
and  residence  growths  would  not  take  the  same  trend. 
Then  the  question  arose,  how  would  they  divide?  In 
St.  Louis,  for  instance,  the  picturesqueness  of  the  river 
banks  seemed  to  forecast  a  residential  growth  southward 
from  the  original  settlements.  But  this  proved  to  be 
only  partially  true.  Finally,  the  trend  of  residences 
became  westward,  and  manufacturing  north  and  south. 

City  Growth 

In  the  very  beginning  there  arises  the  question  as  to 
whether  the  budding  town  will  become  a  great  city  at  all. 
In  their  inception  all  towns  and  cities  exist  mainly  upon 
the  surrounding  country.  What  were  the  nature,  char- 
acter, and  resources  of  this  country,  and  the  likelihood 
of  its  development? 

Often,  besides,  there  was  the  matter  of  competition 
particularly  in  the  early  stages  of  the  community,  from 
other  ambitious  and  enterprising  near-by  cities.  Which 
of  two  competitors  would  ultimately  be  the  great  city? 


INTRODUCTION  5 

There  are  a  number  of  examples  of  competing  cities — 
some  near  together,  some  divided  merely  by  a  river  or 
an  imaginary  line — where  one  is  a  progressive  com- 
munity in  all  that  the  name  implies  and  the  other  sunk 
in  sloth  and  blind  self -content.  One  of  them  would  ulti- 
mately be  successful,  the  other  would  finally  be  classed 
among  the  "also-rans."  Which  would  succeed  ?  In  such 
emergencies  the  shrewd  and  far-seeing  investor  in  land 
found  only  one  solution  to  the  problem,  but  as  Mercutio 
said,  "  'Twill  do,"  for  it  was  the  spirit  of  the  people. 

Progress 

There  are  certain  cities  whose  growth  was  early  per- 
ceived by  observers  of  far-reaching  vision,  yet  for  whose 
existence  none  of  the  conventional  reasons  give  sufficient 
answer.  They  are  not  natural  "keys"  to  any  particular 
section.  They  are  not  on  a  large  watercourse,  nor  yet  is 
their  situation  the  gateway  to  any  extensive  section  of 
the  country.  Why  is  Atlanta,  or  Indianapolis,  or  Roch- 
ester, or  Kansas  City,  or  Los  Angeles?  Again  there  is 
one  sufficient  answer — the  spirit  of  the  people. 

In  the  last  analysis,  as  will  be  developed  in  this  and 
succeeding  studies,  that  is  likewise  the  answer  to  the 
development  and  progress,  or  their  lack,  in  the  story  of 
every  section  or  state  of  our  country. 

Opportunities 

In  every  state  in  the  Union  the  unceasing  problem 
was,  is,  and  always  will  be,  the  development  of  such  re- 
sources as  fortune  has  bestowed  upon  the  commonwealth. 
It  is  one  of  the  curious  traits  of  human  nature,  typified 
in  well-known  verse,  that  all  things  look  good  at  a  dis- 
tance and  that  it  needs  this  distance  to  lend  enchantment 
to  the  view.  We  fail  constantly  to  comprehend  that  the 


6  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

things  which  most  concern  us  and  our  welfare  are  near 
at  hand  and  that  the  pot  of  gold  is  close  beside  us,  if  we 
can  only  see  it,  and  not  at  the  end  of  the  rainbow.  It  is 
a  common  historic  experience  that  emigrants  from  one 
state  to  another  could  often  have  done  as  well  at  home  if 
they  had  shown  the  same  aptitude  for  production  and 
development  which  they  displayed  in  their  new  abode. 

The  South  and  Arid  West 

It  was  perfectly  obvious,  over  a  generation  ago,  that 
the  character  of  manufacturing  in  New  England  must 
radically  change  as  time  went  on,  that  the  things  it  pro- 
duced must  steadily  shift  from  those  close  to  raw  mate- 
rial to  finished  articles  requiring  skilled  labor.  With 
these  articles  the  cost  of  freight  to  their  natural  markets, 
the  South  and  West,  did  not  bear  so  great  a  proportion  to 
the  total  cost.  It  was  equally  plain  that  when  the  prob- 
lems of  sufficient  labor,  both  in  quantity  and  quality,  and 
of  motive  power  were  solved  in  the  South  Atlantic  states, 
this  section  must  ultimately  become  the  cotton  manufac- 
turing center  of  the  world.  Nor  could  there  be  any 
longer  any  doubt  that  the  South  was  entering  upon  an 
unprecedented  career  of  undreamed  of  development 
when  the  destruction  of  the  cattle  tick  was  once  under- 
taken, when  it  became  certain  that  the  mosquito  was 
the  only  possible  conveyor  of  malaria  and  yellow 
fever,  and  when  the  far-reaching  effect  of  the  invasion 
of  the  cotton-boll  weevil  was  fully  realized.  In 
like  manner  when  the  possibilities  of  material  develop- 
ment by  irrigation  were  realized,  it  became  apparent  that 
the  silent  and  hostile  deserts  of  the  West  were  to  become 
the  seat  of  a  new  and  wonderful  civilization  such  as 
adorned  the  history  of  ancient  times  in  the  stories  of 
Egypt,  Babylon,  and  Nineveh. 


INTRODUCTION  7 

Initiative 

If  the  resources  are  not  immediately  obvious,  then 
arises  the  test  of  the  people  as  to  whether  they  are  con- 
tent to  accept  surface  indications  and  go  no  further  than 
to  utilize  in  a  conventional  way  such  resources  as  may  be 
apparent,  or  whether  they  have  that  inquiring  mind  and 
natural  initiative  which  will  test  to  the  uttermost  the 
possibilities  of  the  situation. 

It  was  at  one  time  noteworthy  of  certain  sections  of 
New  England  and  of  the  South  that  they  accepted  with- 
out question  the  prevailing  opinion  that  they  were  not 
fitted  for  the  efficient  and  economical  pursuit  of  certain 
agricultural  industries,  such  as  dairying,  poultry  raising, 
and  fruit  production.  Because  they  placed  extravagant 
and  unwarranted  stress  upon  manufacturing  on  the  one 
hand  or  upon  cotton  culture  on  the  other,  they  preferred 
largely  to  import  from  other  states  the  milk,  butter,  eggs, 
chickens,  and  fruits  which  they  consumed,  under  the  mis- 
taken economic  notion  that  they  could  do  this  to  greater 
advantage,  paying  for  them  in  the  products  of  their 
principal  industries,  than  if  they  produced  these  neces- 
saries themselves. 

State  Pride 

In  any  such  careful  study  of  the  states,  one  of  the 
compelling  elements  in  the  situation  is  that  state  con- 
sciousness in  which  one  commonwealth  differs  from 
another.  This  state  consciousness  is  itself  the  result  of 
the  deep  influence  of  climate  and  topography,  of  indus- 
trial experience,  of  history  and  tradition,  of  education, 
all  operating  upon  a  population  of  a  particular  blend  of 
racial  elements. 

It  is  easy  to  account  for  the  variations  of  state  con- 
sciousness in  such  long-established  communities  as  South 


8  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

Carolina  and  Massachusetts,  after  the  moulding  influ- 
ences have  had  ample  time  to  work  themselves  out.  But 
it  is  not  so  easy  to  understand  equally  striking  differences 
in  some  of  the  newer  states  whose  history  is  largely 
recent,  and  in  which  tradition  is  mostly  noticeable  by  its 
absence.  Kansas,  for  instance,  differs  markedly  in  cer- 
tain particulars  from  any  of  the  four  sister  common- 
wealths which  encompass  her,  however  much  the  sur- 
face indications  are  of  general  similarity  and  likeness. 

State  Differences 

Only  as  these  essential  differences  become  apparent 
in  the  course  of  study  do  we  realize  the  momentous  truth 
that  each  state  is  a  separate  and  distinct  entity,  the  com- 
posite expression  of  the  traits  and  peculiarities  of  its 
people,  and  not  merely  a  geographical  expression  with 
physical  boundaries.  It  cannot  be  otherwise  in  a  demo- 
cratic country,  or  we  should  steadily,  and  probably  almost 
unresistingly,  drift  into  centralized  federal  control;  be- 
cause of  a  general  likeness  and  homogeneity  our  people 
would  readily  be  persuaded  that  such  control  meant 
greater  national  unity,  and  consequently  more  wide- 
spread public  welfare. 

Topography 

In  the  effort  to  arrive  at  an  understanding  of  the 
state  consciousness  nothing  may  be  neglected,  however 
insignificant  or  unpromising.  Equally  must  there  be 
that  method  of  analysis  and  investigation  which  ap- 
proaches the  subject  with  an  unbiased  mind,  a  slate  wiped 
clean  of  preconceived  opinions  which  are  usually  wrong 
and  misleading. 

The  natural  conditions  of  the  soil,  climate,  and  re- 
sources of  different  states  and  different  sections  are 


INTRODUCTION  9 

infallible  indexes  to  the  nature  and  extent  of  their  devel- 
opment and  progress  in  the  future.  That  is,  for  all  save 
those  who  having  eyes,  see  not.  The  topography  of  a 
country  is  all-important,  since  men  are  largely  as  their 
environment.  The  effect  of  surroundings  is  even  more 
mental  and  spiritual  than  physical.  Peoples  of  the  great 
plains  and  the  desert  have  broad  mental  as  well  as  phys- 
ical horizons,  and  their  freedom  of  thought  and  freedom 
from  the  numbing  influence  of  history  and  tradition  are 
owing  largely  to  that  facility  of  communication  due  to 
ease  of  travel  which  brings  them  in  constant  contact 
with  their  fellowmen.  The  dwellers  in  the  mountains 
and  thickly  forested  districts  are  apt  to  stay  much  at 
home  and  to  become  encrusted  with  those  local  prejudices 
and  provincialities  which  are  the  deadliest  of  all  the 
enemies  of  true  progress.  Travel,  which  takes  a  man 
outside  of  himself,  is  the  most  far-reaching  and  enduring 
of  all  methods  and  modes  of  education  and  the  most  cre- 
ative of  human  tolerance  and  human  sympathy. 

Climate 

Moreover,  in  the  survey  of  every  nation  and  people 
the  climate  is  a  matter  of  prime  importance.  Lafcadio 
Hearn  in  his  stories  of  the  West  Indies  indicated  clearly 
why  unceasing  heat  and  debilitating  moisture  make 
mental  and  physical  energy  there  almost  impossible.  It 
is  equally  true  in  our  own  country,  although  lying  en- 
tirely in  the  temperate  zone,  that  the  climate  of  some 
states  is  an  inspiration  to  action  and  is  their  chief  social 
and  economic  asset,  while  that  of  other  states  is  at  times, 
especially  in  the  summer  months,  an  undeniable  handi- 
cap to  every  form  of  endeavor.  There  is  the  vital  mat- 
ter likewise  of  the  relation  of  the  prevailing  climate  to 
agriculture.  Farming  is  a  much  simpler  and  surer  pur- 


io  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

suit  in  Ohio,  for  instance,  than  in  the  states  of  the  great 
plains;  and  the  genius  and  intelligence  of  the  people 
have  expressed  themselves  in  the  manner  in  which  these 
latter  commonwealths  have  adapted  their  farming  meth- 
ods to  recurring  visitations  of  devastating  droughts  and 
destroying  hot  winds. 

Weather  records  are  important.  They  are  not  diffi- 
cult to  analyze  if  you  use  a  little  common  sense  and  do 
not  attempt  to  get  into  the  mathematics  and  technicalities 
which  the  professional  meteorologist  finds  necessary  in 
the  study  of  the  abstruse  problems  of  forecasting.  It 
was  obvious  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  that  it  was 
neither  ignorance  nor  lack  of  initiative  that  was  holding 
back  the  state  of  Kansas  and  that  the  reason  must  be 
sought  elsewhere.  The  state  government  agricultural 
reports  disclosed  a  serious  decline  in  crop  yields  of  late 
years,  especially  in  corn,  although  the  acreage  under  cul- 
tivation was  as  large  as  ever.  A  study  of  the  weather 
records  collected  at  the  State  Agricultural  College  showed 
the  coincidence  of  hot,  dry  summers  with  decreased  crop 
yields.  The  conclusion  as  to  the  essential  requirements 
for  Kansas  farming  was  obvious. 

Quality  of  People 

Equally  important  with  the  study  of  the  natural  con- 
ditions and  resources  of  a  region  comes  the  study  of  the 
quality  and  record  of  the  people  who  inhabit  it. 

As  a  rule  the  shorter  the  history  of  a  state,  the  greater 
the  chances  of  development,  since  then  the  common- 
wealth is  really  in  its  youth  with  all  the  courage  of 
youth  to  do  and  to  dare.  Yet  on  the  other  hand,  where 
the  state  has  a  proud  story  behind  it,  as  in  the  case  of 
North  Carolina,  there  must  be  a  searching  analysis  of 
such  history,  as  in  it  may  be  found,  treasured  and  pre- 


INTRODUCTION  II 

served,  all  those  elements  of  the  people  which  make  for 
development  and  progress. 

Next  comes  the  study  of  what  these  people  have  done 
with  their  inheritance,  the  study  of  the  activities,  com- 
mercial and  industrial,  social  and  educational,  in  which 
they  have  been  and  are  engaged.  Mining  and  lumbering 
are  activities  that  come  early  in  a  state's  life  as  a  rule; 
they  represent  the  working  up  of  primary  natural  re- 
sources. They  have  much  to  do  usually  with  moulding 
the  character  of  a  people,  even  when  they  are  supplanted 
later  as  principal  activities.  In  California  and  Colorado 
mining  was  merely  the  prelude  to  the  great  drama  of 
these  two  commonwealths. 

Agriculture 

Agriculture  has  been  and  always  will  be  the  most 
elementally  vital  pursuit  of  the  human  race,  since  it, 
principally,  furnishes  the  primal  necessities  of  food  and 
clothing.  Examination  of  the  state's  agricultural  condi- 
tions and  outlook  should  constitute  one  of  the  chief  parts 
of  such  a  survey  as  we  are  discussing.  It  is  a  contradic- 
tory and  paradoxical  fact  that  as  a  business  agriculture 
has  been  largely  governed  by  rule-of -thumb  procedures 
and  traditions  of  the  past.  Its  most  vital  factors,  soil 
fertilization,  crop  rotation,  intensive  cultivation,  are  as 
old,  nearly,  as  the  human  race.  Many  of  its  practices 
were  mere  suspicions  of  certain  scientific  laws  of  cause 
and  effect  brought  about  by  accident,  or  analytical  obser- 
vation, or  the  exercise  of  common  sense,  which  coupled 
somewhat  non-understandingly  certain  actions  with 
always  the  same  consequence. 

The  growth  of  agriculture  in  any  state  is  not  measured 
alone  by  the  increase  in  crop  yields  nor  by  the  multiplica- 
tion of  live  stock.  There  are  changes  which  go  deeper 


12  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

because  they  affect  the  every-day  life  of  the  farmer  and 
his  family.  To  those  who  realize  that  the  history  of  a 
people  lies  not  only  in  the  story  of  their  public  men  and 
the  acts  of  their  legislature,  but  also  in  the  homely  recital 
of  the  daily  lives  of  the  obscure  and  unknown  who  make 
up  the  greater  part  of  every  nation  it  must  seem  apparent 
that  in  rural  life  progress  is  reflected  in  the  advance  made 
in  education,  sanitation,  and  generally  improved  ways 
of  living  as  well  as  in  any  statistics  on  crops  and  live 
stock. 

Other  Characteristics 

Water-power  is  one  of  the  chief  resources  of  any 
region  and  the  extent  of  its  application,  whether  for  in- 
dustrial purposes  or  for  irrigation,  is  very  often  the 
measure  of  the  intelligence,  initiative,  and  ingenuity  of 
the  people. 

Manufacturing,  even  beyond  its  commercial  aspect, 
is  frequently  of  supreme  importance,  as  in  North  Caro- 
lina, in  the  vast  social  and  economic  changes  which  it 
causes.  It  introduces  a  host  of  perplexing  problems  in 
every  phase  of  state  life  and  these  in  turn  bring  develop- 
ment. 

The  extent  and  variety  of  education  is  the  supreme 
test  of  the  development  and  progress  of  the  people  of  a 
state.  Education  creates  and  constantly  develops  the 
intelligence  of  a  people  and  increases  their  earning 
power.  Likewise  it  calls  new  wants  into  being  and  in- 
vokes larger  spending  among  the  many,  and  for  things 
of  higher  merit.  Moreover  it  is  the  vital  element,  or, 
chemically  speaking,  the  active  principle  of  all  progress 
and  all  advancement.  Ignorance  and  illiteracy  are  con- 
tent with  things  as  they  are  and  seek  no  further,  nor  have 
any  desire  to  better  themselves  and  their  conditions. 


INTRODUCTION  13 

Survey 

For  the  survey  to  be  trustworthy  there  must  be  an 
entire  absence  of  any  attempt  to  prove  a  theory.  Facts 
must  first  be  obtained  with  the  theory  following  as  the 
natural  consequence  of  intelligent  and  unbiased  study 
of  the  facts.  Conclusions  sound  enough  to  form  the  basis 
of  future  action  can  come  only  from  the  union  of  com- 
mon sense  and  careful  reasoning,  such  as  has  found 
vivid  illustration  in  the  great  series  of  detective  stories  by 
Edgar  Allan  Poe  and  Conan  Doyle,  for  they  represent 
that  analogy  of  deductive  and  inductive  reasoning  familiar 
in  every  phase  of  human  intelligence.  Too  often  effort 
to  interpret  the  character  of  a  community  has  gone  no 
further  than  superficial  examination  presenting  loose 
generalizations  about  material  resources,  with  flamboyant 
forecasts  of  the  prosperity  which  inevitably  awaited  the 
people  whose  country  possessed  such  sources  of  wealth. 
Meanwhile  there  remained,  neglected  and  unrecognized, 
the  real  springs  of  action  in  any  nation,  the  nature  and 
character  of  the  people  and  their  mental  and  moral  tend- 
encies in  indicating  the  social  and  economic  paths  along 
which  their  future  must  inevitably  lie.  The  tropical 
countries  are  full  of  illustrations  of  nature's  gifts  and 
resources  vainly  bestowed  with  lavish  hand  upon  peoples 
and  races  whose  inherent  characteristics  merely  spell 
decadence  and  decay  instead  of  progress  and  advance- 
ment. 

Literature 

The  study  will  naturally  begin  with  books,  especially 
those  which  tell  of  the  history  of  a  state  and  more  par- 
ticularly of  its  people.  To  give  background  and  defini- 
tions the  observer  needs  to  consult  such  reports  as  he  can 
find,  either  governmental  or  private,  dealing  with  the 


14  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

topography,  geology,  and  climate  of  the  region,  its  natural 
resources,  and  their  industrial  and  commercial  develop- 
ment. One  thing  especially  to  be  investigated  is  the  mat- 
ter of  education,  of  how  much  money  the  state  govern- 
ment and  the  local  authorities  are  investing  in  schools 
of  whatever  sort  as  a  preparation  for  the  future,  and 
what  direction  the  education  is  taking. 

The  Department  of  Agriculture  at  Washington  can 
furnish  much  desired  information  on  agriculture  in  all  its 
phases,  and  the  full  and  complete  story  of  the  weather. 
The  Geological  Survey  at  Washington  will  supply  what- 
ever is  needed  in  regard  to  mines.  The  State  Agricul- 
tural College  and  State  Agricultural  Board  will  also  tell 
of  the  agricultural  resources  of  the  state.  The  Secre- 
tary of  State  of  each  state  will  either  furnish  other  de- 
sired information  or  indicate  where  to  procure  it. 

Personal  Observation 

It  must  never  be  forgotten,  however,  that  books  alone 
will  not  carry  you  far,  not  even  books  of  statistics.  Sta- 
tistics are  sure  to  be  misleading  unless  you  know  from 
personal  study  and  observation  the  facts  which  produced 
them.  That  is  why  so  many  writers  on  economics,  who 
know  only  statistics,  are  mere  blind  leaders  of  the  blind. 
There  is  but  one  way  to  reach  a  true  conclusion  and 
that  is  by  personal  study  and  observation.  Statistics, 
books  of  information,  stories  of  what  others  have  seen, 
all  have  their  place  provided  they  are  supplemented  by 
one's  own  experience,  otherwise  they  are  but  broken 
reeds  to  lean  upon  and  lead  only  to  half-truths  and  mis- 
conceptions. There  is  much  to  be  got  from  those  who 
have  acquired  their  knowledge  by  hard  contact  with 
actual  facts  in  the  workaday  world.  Such  people  are 
usually  of  the  plain  every-day  variety,  and  often  know 


INTRODUCTION  15 

only  one  or  two  elemental  and  vital  things.  But  they 
have  these  solidly  imbedded  in  their  consciousness.  It  is 
always  well  to  check  up  your  own  experiences  and  obser- 
vations with  those  of  people  of  this  type  whenever  you 
are  able  to  do  so.  It  frequently  saves  you  from  being 
carried  away  by  theories  at  the  expense  of  common 
sense  and  facts. 

I  have  met  many  such  people  in  the  ranks  of  farmers, 
working  men  of  all  types,  trainmen,  retail  dealers  in 
the  smaller  cities  and  towns,  and  always  professional 
men  and  mechanics  of  all  descriptions  who  live  much  in 
the  open  air.  I  was  once  "put  wise"  to  the  story  of  the 
Kansas  oil  fields,  their  development  and  history,  by 
an  oil  "driller"  whom  I  met  casually  in  Hutchinson. 
Another  time  in  a  ride  in  a  day  coach  from  Wichita  to 
Neodesha  I  learned  the  story  of  the  zinc  mines  in  south- 
eastern Kansas  from  a  flannel-shirted,  unshaven,  and 
unshorn  mining  engineer  who  shared  a  seat  with  me. 
There  is  not  much  real  information  to  be  had  from 
those  who  have  not  had  some  rough-and-ready  experi- 
ences, and  who  have  not  done  some  investigating  on  their 
own  account. 

Travel 

The  surest  and  only  reliable  way  to  get  acquainted 
with  the  state  and  its  people,  is  to  travel  over  it.  A  rail- 
road train  will  do  if  you  look  out  of  the  window,  observ- 
ing and  thinking  about  what  you  see,  and  talking  to 
traveling  men,  trainmen,  and  other  men  who  really  know 
the  country  and  can  tell  you  actual  things  about  it. 

As  you  travel  you  learn  to  "size  up"  the  inward  and 
spiritual  ways  of  the  people  by  their  outward  and  visible 
signs.  You  learn  to  determine  the  progressiveness  of  a 
town  from  the  nature  and  appearance  of  streets,  stores, 


16  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

schoolhouses,  churches,  and  places  of  amusement.  You 
can  tell  from  the  nature  of  the  goods  in  the  stores 
whether  the  citizens  are  up  to  date  or  whether  they  are 
content  with  the  ways  of  their  fathers.  If  these  stores 
have  records  and  victrolas,  stylish  clothes,  tempting  gro- 
ceries of  well-known  brands,  attractive  cutlery,  and 
builders'  hardware,  the  latest  soda  fountains  and  book 
counters,  you  know  that  commercially  speaking  it  is  a 
"good  town"  in  which  to  sell  the  latest  up-to-date  mer- 
chandise. You  get  the  pace  of  the  town,  either  slow  or 
in  the  running,  from  such  things  as  the  absence  or  pres- 
ence of  well-paved  streets  and  sidewalks,  well-kept 
lawns,  attractive  homes,  electric  lighting  plants,  running 
water  in  the  houses,  and  the  character  and  appearance  of 
schools  and  public  libraries.  Furthermore  from  these 
things  of  appearance  you  easily  deduce  the  kind  of  com- 
modities the  people  are  likely  to  buy — whether  oriental 
rugs  or  cheap  carpets,  whether  high-grade  edge  tools  or 
cheaper  substitutes,  whether  beautiful  "creations"  in 
clothes  or  mere  "hand-me-downs."  For  the  things  you 
have  observed  are  the  inevitable  expression  of  the  ways, 
thoughts,  and  aspirations  of  the  people  you  seek  to 
understand. 

Similarly,  in  farming  communities  you  observe 
whether  farmers  are  provided  with  the  capital  necessary 
for  the  intelligent  conduct  of  their  business;  whether 
there  is  sufficiency  of  farm  implements  and  machinery, 
of  barns  and  storehouses  for  crops,  silos,  and  live  stock. 
From  the  condition  of  the  growing  crops,  and  their 
diversification  you  can  draw  evidences  as  to  the  intelli- 
gence with  which  farming  is  pursued. 

That  is  to  say,  successful  study  of  the  resources  and 
possibilities  of  a  state  must  be  founded  principally  on 
the  personal  knowledge  and  observation  of  those  making 


INTRODUCTION  17 

the  reports.  It  requires  much  traveling  over  the  region 
to  be  studied,  with  ceaseless  observation  and  analysis  of 
everything  which  greets  the  eye;  figures,  statistics,  and 
written  records  in  general  being  merely  supplementary 
to  direct  observation.  In  a  word,  it  must  take  into 
account  not  merely  obvious  and  external  facts  but  those 
inner  spiritual  characteristics  which  reveal  themselves 
only  after  long  and  close  acquaintance. 

Representative  States 

Every  one  of  the  states  has  its  own  individuality.  The 
process  of  its  development,  when  closely  studied,  is  rich 
in  meaning.  To  cover  all  the  states,  however,  would  be 
impossible  within  avaiable  limits  of  space  and  time.  The 
basis  of  selection  must  be  in  some  sense  of  a  representative 
character.  The  states  of  one  region,  as  they  are  usually 
subject  to  somewhat  similar  influence,  to  a  certain  degree 
parallel  each  other  in  character  and  experience.  For 
convenience,  however,  we  may  select  a  few  states  in 
which  the  tendencies  of  the  various  sections  of  the  coun- 
try have  manifested  themselves  strongly — which  repre- 
sent the  high-lights  of  the  country's  recent  development. 
'  The  states  here  selected  are:  Ohio,  representing 
broadly  a  composite  land,  the  older  Middle  West;  Wis- 
consin, the  northern  Middle  West;  Arkansas,  the  South- 
west and  the  central  South;  North  Carolina,  the  more 
southern  Atlantic  states;  Kansas,  the  western  plains; 
Texas,  the  southern  plains ;  Colorado,  the  mountains ;  and 
California,  the  Pacific  Coast. 

East  Omitted 

It  will  be  noted  at  once  that  there  is  no  treatment  of 
the  oldest  sections  of  the  country :  New  England ;  New 
York  and  New  Jersey ;  Pennsylvania,  with  Delaware  and 


18  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

Maryland ;  and  Virginia.  The  reason  is  given  as  follows : 
The  studies  of  the  present  volume  have  to  do  with 
the  development  of  the  past  quarter  century.  During 
that  time  the  newer  sections  of  the  country  in  the  West 
and  South  have  been  passing  through  large  and  signifi- 
cant changes  which  represent,  in  many  instances,  what 
might  be  termed  the  growth  of  the  state  to  full  stature, 
the  completion  of  the  state  "pattern."  Meanwhile  in  the 
older  section,  what  is  commonly  called  "the  East,"  the 
changes  have  been  of  a  different  nature.  There  the  state 
"pattern"  was  filled  out  a  generation  ago.  In  certain 
senses  the  original  creative  impulse  has  reached  a  pause 
in  some  of  the  eastern  states.  The  stronger  elements  of 
the  original  population  naturally  have  been  attracted  to 
newer  states  and  have  been  replaced  by  a  new  popula- 
tion of  immigrants  of  a  different  racial  character. 

The  Next  Wave  of  Progress 

It  is  true  of  course  that  history  is  still  in  the  making 
in  this  oldest  section  of  our  country  with  its  new  popula- 
tion. A  second  process  of  Americanization  is  under 
way,  and  a  second  "try"  at  industrial  development.  The 
processes  of  change,  however,  represent  a  later  stage  of 
development  than  in  the  rest  of  the  country.  They  are, 
moreover,  too  complex  and  obscure  and  perhaps  as  yet 
not  far  enough  along  for  clear  interpretation  at  this  time. 

So  far  as  the  obscure  processes  of  this  second  making 
of  America  may  be  interpreted,  they  may  perhaps  indi- 
cate that  nature  is  applying  the  Napoleonic  formula  of 
"the  tools  to  him  who  can  use  them" ;  that  no  section  of 
our  country  is  going  to  be  allowed  to  lie  waste,  but  that 
when  a  section  falls  behind  presently  a  fresh  wave  of 
Americanizing  energy  from  other  quarters  is  to  pour 
over  it  and  waken  it  to  life  again. 


ARKANSAS 

"The  Arkansas  Traveler'* 

A  generation  ago  the  state  of  Arkansas  was  a  syno- 
nym for  slowness  and  unprogressiveness  among  those 
unfamiliar  with  the  commonwealth  and  its  people.  The 
inhabitants  were  popularly  supposed,  by  the  unknowing, 
to  be  divided  into  "Hill  Billies"  and  "Swamp  Angels" 
and  to  be  without  ambition  for  anything  better  than  the 
ways  of  their  forebears.  The  "Arkansas  Traveler" 
anecdote  was  thought  to  typify  the  shiftlessness  and  easy- 
going content  of  the  people  of  the  state.  The  story  of 
the  "Arkansas  Traveler"  was  in  fact  the  source  from 
which  a  vast  number  of  the  people  in  the  United  States 
drew  their  conceptions  of  the  state  and  its  inhabitants. 
There  was  the  vivid  mental  picture  of  the  good-natured 
male,  too  indifferent  and  too  lazy  either  to  repair  or  im- 
prove his  unsightly  cabin  devoid  alike  of  comforts  and 
conveniences.  There  were  the  unattractive  and  unedu- 
cated women  and  children  clad  in  sunbonnets  and  home- 
spun clothes. 

Ignorance  of  Potentialities 

The  sole  background,  in  the  popular  imagination,  to 
the  above  set-forth  scene  was  the  cypress  swamps, 
draped  with  pendant  funereal  moss,  and  infested  with 
mosquitoes  and  the  ever-present  malaria.  There  was 
scant  knowledge  of  the  fertile  valleys ;  of  the  far-stretch- 
ing belt  of  yellow  pine,  the  future  reliance  of  the  coun- 
try for  its  lumber;  or  of  the  picturesque  forest-clad 
Ozark  uplift  with  its  crystal  streams  and  untouched  de- 

19 


20 '         MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

posits'  !of  mineral,  wealth.  The  ignorant,  though  wide- 
spread thought  concerning  Arkansas  was  that  of  a 
people  unaware  of  their  mental  inertia  and  unprogres- 
siveness,  and  whose  local  and  state  pride  found  expres- 
sion merely  in  a  boastful  recital  of  advantages  and 
resources  which  they  failed  either  to  appreciate  or 
develop.  Added  to  this  was  the  prevalent  impression  that 
immigration  was  not  desired  and  that  foreign  capital 
was  far  from  welcome.  The  fantastic  enactments  of 
some  of  the  legislatures  only  gave  color  to  these  exag- 
gerated conceptions. 

Natural  Resources 

At  a  time  when  such  reports  had  much  general  cre- 
dence one  of  the  large  distributing  concerns  of  the  United 
States  was  engaged  in  making  a  general  survey  of  the 
country  in  regard  to  the  future  possibilities  of  its  busi- 
ness, and  Arkansas  came  within  the  ken  of  its  observa- 
tion. The  story  here  given  of  the  study  of  the  state 
and  the  conclusions  reached  regarding  it,  of  its  subse- 
quent development  and  the  extent  to  which  this  develop- 
ment was  in  accord  with  the  conclusions  of  the  survey, 
are  the  record  of  an  actual  experience. 

Arkansas  consists  practically  of  two  diverse  topo- 
graphical sections,  and  a  line  drawn  from  northeast  to 
southwest  through  Little  Rock  leaves  the  mountainous 
region  to  the  west,  and  the  plains  to  the  east.  Several 
things  are  immediately  apparent  as  a  result  of  these 
geographical  differences.  There  is  great  variety  of 
resources  and  of  the  possibilities  of  production. 

There  is  much  hardwood  in  the  mountains,  vast 
forests  of  yellow  pine  in  the  plains,  and  a  great  growth 
of  cypress  in  the  swamps.  Even  at  the  time  this  survey 
was  undertaken  the  white  pine  forests  of  the  northern 


ARKANSAS  21 

states  were  fast  becoming  exhausted,  and  it  was  per- 
fectly obvious  that  in  the  near  future  the  lumber  sup- 
plies must  come  from  two  sections :  the  far  northwest 
and  Pacific  slope,  and  the  southern  states.  There  are  in 
addition  many  minerals  in  these  mountains:  zinc,  lead, 
coal,  bauxite,  oil,  manganese,  oil  stones,  and  many  of 
the  clay  products. 

Backwardness 

But  transportation,  the  one  thing  needed  to  give  value 
to  these  crude  riches,  was  largely  absent  in  the  rough 
and  hilly  western  part  of  the  state.  The  mountains  were 
not  very  high  but  they  were  rugged  and  rocky,  and  roads, 
whether  highway  or  rail,  were  alike  expensive  to  build 
and  costly  to  maintain.  Until  economical  means  of 
transportation  were  found,  all  the  hardwoods  and  min- 
erals were  of  small  value.  It  was  then  a  saying  in  the 
lumber  business  that  forests  more  than  twenty  miles  from 
a  railroad  were  too  expensive  to  cut. 

There  was  a  still  further  deterrent  to  progress. 
Mountain  people  are  primitive  and  elemental  because  they 
see  but  little  of  each  other  and  less  of  the  outer  world. 
Their  mental  horizon  is  generally  as  circumscribed  as 
their  physical  views,  and  they  are  the  unconscious  slaves 
of  inheritance  and  tradition.  Their  advancement  comes 
usually  through  an  impulse  from  the  outside  which  brings 
new  thoughts  and  aspirations,  and  breaks  down  all  the 
habits  and  ways  of  the  past. 

The  opening  up  and  development  of  the  Ozark 
regions  of  Arkansas  could  come  only  when  the  world 
of  capital  had  true  visions  of  the  potential  riches  hid- 
den in  those  silent  and  picturesque  hills  and  then  set 
about  making  those  visions  realities  of  wealth  and 
revenue. 


22  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

Fertility 

The  plains  country  was  one  of  great  fertility  and 
many  possibilities  of  agricultural  development  Much  of 
it  was  forest  with  most  valuable  standing  timber.  Much 
of  it  was  very  rich  alluvial  deposit,  along  the  banks  of 
the  numerous  rivers  that  traverse  the  state.  There  was 
deadly  peril  on  the  plains  in  those  days,  the  danger  and 
bane  of  enfeebling  and  energy-destroying  disease,  for  the 
inhabitants  of  these  rich  soils  were  ceaselessly  engaged 
in  a  losing  fight  against  malaria  and  yellow  fever.  Yet 
the  state  could  and  did  raise  all  the  products  that  grew 
both  to  the  north  and  south  of  its  boundary  lines.  It 
knew  but  little  of  the  small  grains ;  wheat,  oats,  and  the 
like ;  something  more,  but  not  enough,  of  corn.  It  grew 
some  fruits,  watermelons,  peaches,  pears,  strawberries, 
and  apples,  of  a  nature  and  quality  which  hinted  at  the 
great  things  which  the  future  held  for  it  in  fruit  produc- 
tion. Furthermore  it  did  some  stunts  in  truck  gardening 
although  markets  for  such  products,  and  the  means  of 
reaching  them,  were  then  few  and  not  encouraging.  It 
had  sufficient  and  fairly  regular  and  dependable  rainfall, 
so  that  it  was  measurably  immune  to  those  prolonged  and 
devastating  droughts  which  were  the  bane  and  stumbling- 
block  of  agriculture  to  the  west  and  southwest.  Its  main 
hope  and  dependence  at  the  time  of  the  survey  was  cot- 
ton, nor  did  it  realize  that  in  this  it  leaned  upon  a  broken 
reed. 

Cotton  Obsession 

Arkansas  was  not  much  of  a  cattle  or  dairy  country, 
and  for  two  very  good  reasons.  It  was  so  obsessed  with 
raising  cotton  that  it  had  neither  time  nor  inclination  to 
raise  feed  for  its  live  stock;  and  to  import  this  feed  to 
any  extent  from  the  great  grain  belt  to  the  north  was  too 


ARKANSAS  23 

expensive.  So  it  was  content  to  import  packing-house 
products  from  these  same  northern  states,  and  its  razor- 
back  hogs  were  of  like  fame  with  the  little  sketch  of  the 
"Arkansas  Traveler."  Then  there  was  the  Texas  cattle 
tick,  whose  prevalence  everywhere  in  the  southern  states 
made  cattle  raising  impossible  on  any  large  scale. 

The  plains  had  more  and  better  means  of  communica- 
tion than  the  mountains,  especially  in  railroads.  But 
the  railroads  were  few  in  proportion  to  the  extent  of  the 
country  they  traversed,  and  moreover  they  were  not 
popular  among  so  elemental  and  direct  a  people  as  those 
of  Arkansas.  In  those  days  railroad  building  and  rail- 
road management  were  often  an  adventure  and  specula- 
tion rather  than  a  business  enterprise.  The  executives 
were  sometimes  true  pioneers  and  world  builders,  but  not 
infrequently  they  were  mere  predatory  highwaymen  who 
concealed  their  real  nature  and  purpose  under  the  specious 
title  of  high  financiers. 

The  Anglo-Saxon 

This  recital  of  resources  and  of  the  possibilities  of 
development  is  not  in  itself  convincing.  We  have  all 
seen  it  too  often  in  the  prospectus  of  a  land  company 
or  the  confidential  circular  of  a  local  commercial  club  in 
the  semiarid  regions  of  the  Southwest.  The  situation  in 
Arkansas,  however,  was  peculiar.  The  state  obviously 
had  all  the  resources  needed  to  make  it  rich  and  pros- 
perous, if  only  they  were  developed.  Whether  they 
would  be  developed  was  the  question. 

To  answer  that  question  the  observer  had  to  get  be- 
yond appearances  and  reach  a  comprehension  of  that 
ultimate  factor  of  success,  the  spirit  of  the  people.  The 
people  of  Arkansas  were  of  almost  undiluted  Anglo- 
Saxon  native  stock,  the  foreign  infusion,  both  of  birth 


24  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

and  parentage,  being  only  four  and  a  half  per  cent. 
Whatever  might  be  the  physical  and  mental  inertia  of 
the  hillmen  from  solitude  and  lack  of  communication 
with  the  outside  world,  and  of  the  plainsmen  from  ma- 
laria and  the  burden  of  tradition,  they  -had  preserved 
unsullied,  throughout  generations,  all  the  native  courage, 
resolution,  and  determination  which  made  their  fore- 
bears conquerors  of  disease,  wild  beasts,  and  savages  in 
the  days  gone  by.  The  real  problem  was  to  awaken 
their  consciousness  to  the  neglected  possibilities  of  devel- 
opment and  progress  in  their  state. 

The  Negro 

It  is  true  that  they  had  one  irremovable  handicap — 
nothing  less  than  a  large  negro  population,  28  per  cent 
of  the  total.  This  negro  population  was  illiterate  and 
ignorant,  and  as  a  result  criminal  to  a  considerable  de- 
gree beyond  its  ratio  to  the  whole  population ;  and  more- 
over the  black  man  was  peculiarly  content  with  things  as 
they  were,  after  a  childlike  and  happy-go-lucky  fashion. 
He  was  averse  to  change,  especially  to  such  change  as 
required  hard  work  and  hard  thinking,  with  self-denial 
thrown  in  for  good  measure.  In  general  the  negroes 
were  good  field  hands,  but  wedded  to  the  agricultural 
ways  of  the  past.  They  knew  how  to  raise  cotton,  but 
were  not  keen  about  trying  new  ventures  with  other 
crops.  When  diversification  was  attempted  they  were 
among  the  principal  hindrances  to  the  new  ways  and 
methods  of  agriculture.  Their  illiteracy  was  largely  their 
misfortune,  the  result  of  centuries  of  slavery.  There 
was  at  the  time  of  the  survey,  moreover,  no  general  per- 
ception throughout  the  country  of  the  vital  necessity,  for 
the  benefit  not  only  of  the  black  but  also  of  the  white 
race,  of  the  general  education  of  the  negroes. 


ARKANSAS  25 

Change  from  Within 

The  result  of  the  survey,  however,  indicated  clearly 
to  the  observers  that  it  was  merely  a  question  of  time 
when  the  great  and  undeveloped  resources  of  the  state 
must  come  into  play  and  make  it  pre-eminently  one  of 
the  best  hunting  grounds  for  business  in  all  the  South. 
The  question  was  when  the  great  change  would  come 
and  how  fast  it  would  progress. 

One  chief  hindrance  was  the  backwardness  of  educa- 
tion, not  merely  among  the  negroes  but  among  the  white 
people  as  well.  It  was  obvious  that  while  the  impulse 
and  suggestion  as  to  a  great  development  of  the  state 
might  come  from  the  outside,  the  abiding  change  must 
be  in  the  spirit  of  the  people  themselves  and  their  realiza- 
tion of  the  neglected  opportunities  which  encompassed 
them  on  every  side.  For  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is 
within.  Equally  was  it  obvious  that  the  awakening  must 
be  largely  along  economic  lines,  leading  primarily  to 
the  betterment  of  the  material  status  of  the  people  and 
the  spread  among  them  of  far  better  living  conditions. 

King  Cotton 

While  the  speculation  went  on,  fate  was  preparing 
to  answer  the  question  in  an  entirely  unexpected  and 
far-reaching  fashion.  What  happened  was  the  startling 
exposition  that  the  social,  economic,  and  political  life  of 
the  South  was  bound  up  in  the  conquest  of  three  insig- 
nificant but  malignant  insects,  the  cotton-boll  weevil,  the 
Texas  cattle  tick,  and  the  malaria-bearing  mosquito. 

Almost  from  the  beginning  of  the  agricultural  his- 
tory of  the  South  the  cultivation  of  cotton  was  the  prin- 
cipal industry.  Cotton  was  the  most  economical  and  the 
most  practicable  of  all  fabrics  for  clothing,  and  the  de- 
mand, especially  after  the  invention  of  the  cotton  gin, 


26  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

was  almost  unlimited.  And  the  southern  states  had  all 
the  requisites  for  the  production  of  this  great  staple: 
suitable  soil  and  climate,  a  ready  and  accessible  market, 
and  an  abundance  of  cheap  labor  in  the  shape  of  slaves, 
for  whose  presence  in  this  country  the  production  of 
cotton  was  largely  responsible.  So  in  time  cotton  became 
king,  and  the  South  became  largely  a  one-crop  country. 

One-crop  System 

But  a  one-crop  country  is  a  psychological  phenomenon 
rather  than  a  material  necessity.  To  the  extent  that  one- 
crop  practices  and  ideas  prevail  in  any  country,  to  that 
extent  is  progress  hampered  and  delayed.  It  is  not,  as 
events  prove,  that  the  single  crop  is  the  best  agricultural 
system,  but  rather  that  this  idea  is  unthinkingly  accepted 
as  a  dictum  because  it  seems  substantiated  by  the  experi- 
ence of  the  past.  Men  are  largely  as  their  pursuits  and 
environment.  The  tendency  of  the  people  of  all  one- 
crop  countries  is  to  that  single-track  mind  which  is  the 
accompaniment  and  result  of  one-crop  methods.  There 
is  scant  receptiveness  to  new  and  passing  impressions  and 
an  overweening  regard  and  reverence  for  the  ways  and 
customs  of  inheritance  and  tradition.  In  business  ways 
this  means  that  buying  and  selling  is  much  along  the 
lines  of  the  past;  that  new  goods  and  new  inventions  do 
not  meet  with  any  ready  reception ;  that  economical  labor- 
saving  methods  and  machinery  find  scant  use  among 
those  to  whom  the  ways  of  their  forefathers  are  good 
enough.  Accordingly  enterprise  and  development  lag 
far  behind,  and  the  ordinary  wants  are  few  and  mostly 
for  the  things  of  replacement  and  repair.  Contrariwise, 
the  people  of  countries  and  states  of  diversified  crops 
and  industries  are  usually  as  many-sided  as  their  employ- 
ments. 


ARKANSAS  27 

The  Boll  Weevil 

In  1892  the  cotton-boll  weevil  crossed  the  Rio  Grande 
from  Mexico  into  extreme  southwestern  Texas  near 
Brownsville.  Thenceforth  the  story  of  economic,  social, 
and  political  life  in  the  South  was  that  of  constant  change 
and  uprooting  of  the  past,  ending  finally  in  steady  prog- 
ress and  advance. 

The  destructive  boll  weevil  immediately  began  its 
steady  and  relentless  march  northward  and  eastward,  a 
march  which  was  to  end  only  when  the  extreme  limits  of 
the  cotton  belt  in  this  country  should  have  been  reached. 
Wherever  it  appeared  its  ravages  made  cotton  growing, 
for  a  time  at  least,  either  impossible  or  unremunerative, 
since  no  way  was  found  either  to  check  these  ravages 
with  any  effectiveness  or  to  stay  its  march.  All  methods 
of  insect  destruction  were  without  avail  and  it  multiplied 
with  amazing  rapidity.  It  defied  all  human  efforts  as 
effectually  as  did  the  insect  plagues  which  Jehovah  sent 
upon  Pharaoh  and  the  Egyptians. 

The  immediate  effect  of  the  invasion  of  the  boll 
weevil  in  any  section  was  a  complete  and  immediate 
paralysis  of  all  agricultural  and  commercial  life.  It 
seemed  as  if  the  one  vital  industry  had  been  struck  dead 
without  any  hope  of  resuscitation. 

Economic  Slavery 

The  credit  system  in  Arkansas,  as  elsewhere  in  the 
South,  was  of  that  vicious  type  which  often  prevails 
in  one-crop  countries.  Advances  for  needed  supplies 
were  made  to  the  farmer  or  planter  by  the  general  supply 
stores,  and  the  coming  crop,  long  before  it  was  planted, 
was  mortgaged  as  collateral  for  these  supplies.  The 
enhanced  prices  paid  by  the  unfortunate  agriculturist 
were  consequently  in  accordance  with  the  long  credits 


28  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

and  the  risks  run  by  the  lender.  It  was  in  effect  a  sys- 
tem of  economic  slavery,  burdensome  to  be  borne,  and 
yet  from  which  escape  seemed  as  impossible  as  from  the 
grave. 

Under  such  one-crop  conditions  prosperity  and  de- 
pression succeeded  each  other  in  sharply  accentuated 
cycles  according  as  crop  yields  were  abundant  and  prices 
remunerative,  or  scanty  and  unremunerative.  Upon  the 
appearance  of  the  boll  weevil  the  labored  fabric  of  long- 
time credit  fell  into  sudden  and  general  ruin.  It  was 
obviously  not  even  a  gamble  to  advance  money  upon  a 
crop  that  was  quite  sure  to  be  disastrously  short.  Out 
of  this  bitter  necessity  came  the  real  beginning  of  diversi- 
fication of  crops.  In  the  language  of  the  day  the  planter 
and  the  farmer,  especially  the  tenant  farmer,  were  "up 
against  it,"  for  in  the  homely  phrase  of  the  South  it  was 
a  case  of  "root,  hog,  or  die." 

Diversification 

When  the  crisis  came,  however,  there  ensued  that 
readjustment  to  the  situation  which  usually  results  when 
necessity  and  misfortune  force  the  hand  of  a  people  or 
a  nation  of  inherent  strength.  The  same  enduring  racial 
fiber  which  carried  the  Southern  people  through  the  Civil 
War  and  the  consequent  reconstruction  period  came  to 
their  aid  in  this  emergency,  and  all  their  fortitude  and 
resourcefulness  centered  upon  the  solution  of  the  vital 
and  portentous  problem  which  confronted  them.  If 
cotton  could  no  longer  be  grown  successfully  then  some- 
thing else  must  take  its  place.  Thought  and  endeavor 
turned  to  the  production  of  grains,  forage  crops,  tubers, 
fruits,  and  garden  truck,  all  those  products  that  had  been 
so  long  and  systematically  neglected.  That  was  the 
beginning  of  diversification  of  crops. 


ARKANSAS  29 

Crop  Risks 

Diversified  farming,  fortified  and  advanced  by  the 
effects  of  the  European  War,  has  unquestionably  come 
to  stay.  There  will  be  decreases  and  increases  in  cot- 
ton acreage  according  as  the  price  of  this  great  staple  is 
low  or  high,  but  it  seems  assured  that  crop  diversifica- 
tion in  the  South  has  become  an  established  fact.  The 
Southerner  has  realized  that  only  in  this  way  can  cot- 
ton be  produced  to  the  best  advantage,  and  that  it  is  bet- 
ter and  cheaper  to  raise  all  the  food  needed  for  man  and 
beast,  planting  somewhat  less  cotton,  than  to  buy  all 
these  supplies  at  far  higher  prices  than  they  can  be  pro- 
duced at  home  and  take  the  long  chance  of  producing  a 
big  crop  of  cotton  against  unfavorable  conditions.  Any 
statement  of  the  situation  resolves  itself  into  the  policy 
that  insures  a  generally  remunerative  price  for  cotton, 
not  for  merely  a  single  season  but  for  many  seasons,  and 
this  must  be  an  intelligent  plan  rather  than,  as  in  the 
past,  a  mere  gamble  with  fate  in  the  shape  of  nature. 

Smaller  Yield 

In  1906  the  boll  weevil  appeared  in  the  southwestern 
portion  of  Arkansas  and  by  1916  had  covered  all  the  cot- 
ton-growing parts  of  the  state  except  the  extreme 
northern  border.  Yet  cotton  is  still  the  principal  agri- 
cultural product  of  Arkansas,  and  its  yield  under  favor- 
able weather  conditions  is  as  large  as  in  the  past,  for 
the  people  have  learned  intelligent  methods  of  cultivation 
which  make  it  possible  to  raise  large  yields  of  cotton  in 
spite  of  the  boll  weevil.  But  the  relative  importance  of 
cotton  production  in  the  state  has  materially  declined 
because  more  of  other  food  products  for  man  and  beast 
have  become  a  necessary  part  of  the  farmers'  system. 

More  grains  of  all  kinds  are  grown,  also  forage  feeds 


30  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

for  the  increasing  number  of  cattle.  Alfalfa,  once  a 
total  stranger,  is  known  in  practically  all  parts  of  the 
state.  Arkansas  is  likewise  a  large  raiser  and  exporter 
to  northern  and  western  markets  of  fruit,  apples,  peaches, 
canteloupes,  watermelons,  strawberries,  and  of  vege- 
tables. Rice  growing  on  the  upland  prairies  in  the  cen- 
tral-eastern section  of  the  state  is  an  important  industry. 

Food  Production 

The  Great  War  finished  what  was  left  of  the  one- 
crop  idea  and  of  cotton  as  king,  as  the  export  demand 
was  largely  decreased.  There  was  no  market  in  1914 
and  part  of  1915  for  much  of  the  cotton  grown  in  Ar- 
kansas. The  price  fell  to  five  cents  per  pound,  less  than 
the  cost  of  production,  and  there  was  only  a  limited  de- 
mand for  the  fleecy  staple  even  at  that  ruinous  figure.  As 
the  cotton  planters  had  nothing  to  sell,  they  were  prac- 
tically without  funds  wherewith  to  obtain  those  supplies 
of  food  which  in  the  past  they  had  failed  to  raise  and 
had  consequently  had  to  purchase  from  the  great  grain 
and  live  stock  states  of  the  West  and  Middle  West.  In 
very  desperation  they  were  forced  to  grow  their  own 
foodstuff.  They  were  aided  and  seconded  by  some  enter- 
prising bankers  and  merchants  of  Little  Rock  who  started 
a  campaign  with  the  war  cry,  "Arkansas  should  feed 
herself."  There  was  no  reason,  they  showed,  why 
Arkansas  should  not  easily  produce  all  the  food  needed 
for  her  people  and  her  live  stock  and  thus  save  those 
many  millions  of  dollars  which  annually  in  the  past  were 
sent  out  of  the  state  for  food  products. 

The  Cattle  Tick 

This  campaign  was  aided  in  its  turn  by  the  fight 
which  the  federal  Department  of  Agriculture  had  been 


ARKANSAS  31 

waging  since  1906  to  free  the  southern  states  from 
another  noxious  insect,  the  Texas  cattle  tick.  The  pres- 
ence in  the  South  of  the  cattle  tick  in  countless  millions 
had  for  many  generations  made  the  raising  of  live  stock 
impossible  on  any  extended  scale.  It  destroyed  both  the 
vitality  and  life  of  cattle  by  its  ceaseless  blood-sucking 
and  by  a  fever  which  its  bite  conveyed  from  one  infected 
animal  to  another.  It  was  found  in  every  pasture  and 
upon  every  hillside  and  practically  no  cattle  escaped  the 
infection.  It  bred  in  countless  numbers  and  for  many 
long  years  there  was  no  effort  on  the  part  of  the  people 
to  free  themselves  from  its  depredations.  And  yet,  as 
the  scientists  found,  where  the  problem  was  studied  sys- 
tematically the  pest  was  easily  destroyed  by  driving  the 
tick-infested  animals  through  a  vat  of  arsenic  solution. 
By  1914  one-half  of  the  state  of  Arkansas  was  rid 
of  the  tick  and  it  began  then,  in  common  with  the  rest  of 
the  South,  to  realize  its  destiny  as  a  part  of  the  great 
cattle-raising  section  of  the  country.  It  had  abundant 
natural  pasturage  and  forage.  It  was  free  alike  from 
devastating  droughts  and  destructive  blizzards.  With  the 
consequent  increase  in  cattle  came  naturally  a  corre- 
sponding increase  in  the  number  of  hogs  of  high  breed 
and  productiveness,  so  that  the  razor-back  is  now  only  a 
memory  and  is  extinct,  even  as  a  fire  among  thorns. 

Malaria 

There  remained  only  one  more  ban  to  be  lifted,  that 
of  malaria  and  yellow  fever.  Wherever  malaria  existed, 
enervating  sickness  was  common,  and  immigrants  from 
abroad  and  from  the  other  states  refused  to  come.  There 
was  likewise  the  apprehension  of  the  recurring  out- 
breaks of  yellow  fever,  which  it  seemed  impossible  to 
prevent.  Yellow  fever  not  only  took  a  heavy  toll  of 


32  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

human  life,  but  paralyzed  all  business  and  industrial  life 
wherever  it  prevailed.  Moreover,  because  of  the  ever- 
present  fear  of  its  sure  though  uncertain  recurrence,  the 
cities  and  localities  once  afflicted  were  regarded  as  places 
where  investment  and  enterprise  were  manifestly  gambles 
with  fate.  During  succeeding  visitations  of  this  terrible 
scourge  every  section  where  it  prevailed  was  literally  out 
of  all  productive  and  distributing  business  during  the 
long  summer  and  early  spring  months  in  which  the  dread 
disease  prevailed.  The  infested  districts  were  quar- 
antined against  all  the  world.  At  times  there  were  shot- 
gun quarantines  where  to  cross  the  dead-line  meant 
instant  death. 

Banishment  of  Disease 

In  1901  it  became  definitely  known,  as  a  result  of 
scientific  investigation,  that  both  malaria  and  yellow 
fever  could  be  conveyed  only  by  the  bite  of  certain  species 
of  mosquitoes.  That  the  truth  might  be  sure  beyond  con- 
tradiction it  needed  that  experiment  should  confirm  the 
results  of  study.  In  the  hospital  corps  of  the  United 
States  Army  in  Cuba,  American  soldiers  offered  their 
lives  that  humanity  might  live.  The  test  was  complete 
and  conclusive  even  though  some  of  the  heroic  volunteers 
died  that  the  truth  might  be  established.  This  is  one  of 
the  instances  where  a  scientific  discovery  has  changed  the 
entire  current  of  business  life.  Immediately  the  ban  of 
the  disease  was  lifted  from  the  South,  for  all  that  was 
necessary  was  to  avoid  being  bitten  by  these  mosquitoes 
through  protecting  dwellings  with  suitable  screens.  Like- 
wise, there  was  an  additional  and  compelling  incentive  to 
the  draining  of  swamp-lands,  the  mosquitoes'  haunts  and 
breeding  places.  Not  only  were  the  foundations  of  ma- 
laria thus  destroyed,  but  there  immediately  became  avail- 


ARKANSAS  33 

able  for  cultivation  the  richest  alluvial  lands  in  this  coun- 
try. So  there  ensued  and  still  goes  on  the  draining  of 
those  fever-breeding  marshes  of  which  the  eastern  part 
of  Arkansas  has  its  share. 

Agriculture  Stimulated 

And  thus  the  beginning  of  the  development  fore- 
seen by  the  survey  has  come  to  pass.  Diversification  of 
crops  is  now  a  fixed  part  of  the  agricultural  life  of  the 
state,  because  of  the  necessity  bred  by  the  boll  weevil, 
and  the  opportunity  afforded  by  the  freeing  of  the 
greater  part  of  the  state  from  the  cattle  tick.  The  re- 
sulting prosperity  has  brought  not  only  greater  material 
welfare  but  its  inevitable  accompaniment,  a  broadening 
of  the  mental  horizon  of  the  people  and  their  increasing 
interest  in  all  phases  of  education  and  enlightenment. 
The  old-time  provincialism  is  fast  becoming  a  memory. 

Agriculture,  the  basis  of  economic  life,  has  a  new 
vision.  Arkansas  today  not  only  feeds  herself  but 
exports  great  quantities  of  fruits  and  garden  truck  to 
northern  and  western  markets.  Above  all,  her  people  are 
seeking  to  make  life  on  the  farm  not  only  profitable  but 
worth  while  and  to  supply  the  farms  with  those  essen- 
tials of  sanitation,  intelligent  system,  and  the  comforts 
and  conveniences  that  are  characteristic  of  modern  life. 
One  striking  feature  of  rural  existence  is  the  number  of 
"county  agents,"  trained  and  experienced  men  and 
women,  maintained  by  the  federal  and  state  govern- 
ments, whose  sole  duty  is  to  serve  the  farmer  and  his 
family  in  the  ways  of  teaching  and  direction. 

New  Spirit 

Most  momentous  of  all  is  the  new-born  spirit  of  the 
people,  as  evidenced  in  a  recent  liberal  constitution  and 


34  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

the  consequent  fast  dying  out  of  that  feeling  in  the  out- 
side world  which  made  the  stranger  to  the  state  regard 
it  as  undesirable  either  as  a  residence  or  a  place  in  which 
to  do  business.  There  are  increasing  developments  in 
mining,  and  in  the  lumber  output  Arkansas  now  ranks 
fifth  among  the  states. 

For  those  familiar  with  the  situation  from  close  per- 
sonal study  it  was  not  necessary  to  await  the  full  develop- 
ment of  the  results  of  the  invasion  of  the  cotton-boll 
weevil,  the  destruction  of  the  cattle  tick,  and  the  drain- 
ing of  the  swamp-lands  to  realize  what  would  be  their 
effect,  as  a  creative  impulse,  upon  the  people  of  Arkansas 
and  the  consequent  development  of  the  great  resources 
of  the  state.  To  those  who  had  thoroughly  analyzed 
the  situation  and  who  had  the  vision  to  perceive  the 
inevitable  trend  of  events,  the  certain  conclusions  were 
self-evident  even  at  that  early  stage  of  the  game. 

Outlook  Broadened 

The  discovery,  for  instance,  that  the  germ-bearing 
mosquito  was  the  only  method  of  malarial  and  yellow 
fever  infection  immediately  opened  up  the  possibilities 
both  of  the  prevention  of  these  diseases  by  screen  pro- 
tection against  the  deadly  insect,  and  likewise  of  this 
insect's  ultimate  destruction  by  draining  the  swamp- 
lands which  were  its  breeding  places.  Both  methods 
were  bound  not  only  to  insure  better  health  and  greater 
vigor  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  state,  but  to  add  enor- 
mously to  their  economic  productiveness  because  malaria 
is  probably  one  of  the  most  debilitating  diseases  known. 

Furthermore,  banishing  the  fear  and  likelihood  of 
malaria  and  yellow  fever  made  possible  the  immigration 
of  those  outside  the  state  who  had  previously  shunned 
making  their  home  in  or  even  visiting  a  region  where  these 


ARKANSAS  35 

dread  diseases  prevailed.  Immigration  from  other  states 
was  bound  to  bring  with  it  new  ideas,  new  methods,  and 
that  country-wide  point  of  view  which  tended  inevitably 
to  dissipate  the  provincialism  of  those  to  whom  outside 
faces  were  largely  a  novelty.  Finally,  the  draining  of 
the  swamp-lands  presented  great  possibilities  of  in- 
creased agricultural  production  and  consequently  in- 
creased wealth  to  the  state,  because  centuries  of  alluvial 
deposits  had  made  these  lands  among  the. richest  in  the 
world. 

Spirit  of  Independence 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  taking  up  of  these 
new  lands  renews  in  those  who  farm  them  that  pioneer 
spirit  of  independent  thought  and  action  and  of  steady 
industry  which  gave  this  country  her  place  among  the 
nations,  and  which  is  still  the  elemental  spirit  of  Ameri- 
can democracy.  That  this  result  would  follow  in  Arkan- 
sas was  not  difficult  to  forecast  by  those  who  were 
familiar  with  the  entire  country  and  who  knew  both 
from  observation  and  study  what  had  been  the  results 
of  similar  happenings  in  other  states — for  instance,  in 
connection  with  the  draining  of  swamp-lands  in  portions 
of  Missouri  and  Illinois,  and  in  northern  Ohio  along  the 
shores  of  Lake  Erie. 

Live  Stock 

Equally  elemental,  as  Sherlock  Holmes  would  say, 
was  the  sure  effect  upon  farming  when  the  Texas  cattle 
tick  was  exterminated  and  the  general  raising  of  live 
stock  made  possible.  The  South  was  sure  of  becoming 
a  great  cattle-raising  section  because  it  had  all  the  ways 
and  means  thereto.  There  must  naturally  ensue  then  in 
due  course  of  time,  hastened  by  the  constant  teaching 


36  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

of  the  federal  Department  of  Agriculture  and  the  State 
University,  a  realization  by  the  farming  community  that 
it  was  cheaper  to  raise  its  own  food  in  the  shape  of  live 
stock  than  to  buy  it  from  the  West  and  the  North  in 
the  form  of  packing-house  products.  With  the  advent 
of  live  stock  as  an  integral  part  of  farm  life,  there  must 
necessarily  ensue  increased  fertility  of  the  soil  and  more 
intelligent  methods  of  farming.  Another  important  in- 
dustry, that  of  the  dairy  cow  and  her  products,  was 
bound  ultimately  to  accompany  live  stock  raising,  and 
to  add  greatly  to  the  prosperity  of  the  farmer. 

Taught  by  Adversity 

Now  all  of  these  things  were  easily  to  be  prophesied 
by  the  investigator  in  the  beginning,  provided  always 
that  he  was  a  student  of  men  and  conditions  as  well  as 
of  books,  and  had  some  measure  of  experience  in  the 
lines  he  essayed  to  investigate.  On  the  surface,  it  may 
seem,  the  ultimate  result  of  the  boll  weevil  invasion  was 
not  so  simple,  seeing  that  it  apparently  threatened  the 
entire  destruction  of  the  principal  industry  of  the  South, 
that  of  cotton  raising,  and  that  there  seemed  no  remedy 
for  the  situation.  Yet  in  the  last  analysis  this  was  in 
no  manner  different  from  the  problems  of  the  malarial 
mosquito  and  the  Texas  cattle  tick,  save  that  seemingly 
the  outside  influence  was  essentially  destructive  and 
not  constructive. 

In  sober  truth  there  was  need  of  destruction  of  the 
old  before  the  new  and  better  ways  could  be  seen  for 
their  true  worth.  The  mistaken  fallacy  of  one-crop 
cotton  farming  in  the  South  had  long  been  recognized 
and  set  forth  by  the  intelligent  and  advanced  agricultural 
teachers  of  the  day.  But  theirs  were  voices  crying  in 
the  wilderness.  They  went  up  against  the  imbedded 


ARKANSAS  37 

practices  of  two  centuries  and  made  no  impression. 
There  was  but  one  way  of  teaching,  and  nature  fur- 
nished it  as  she  always  does,  in  the  shape  of  trouble 
and  apparently  dire  misfortune.  Men,  and  peoples, 
rarely  learn  permanent  and  enduring  lessons  in  any  other 
school.  It  was  perfectly  obvious  as  soon  as  it  was  seen 
that  the  march  of  the  boll  weevil  could  not  be  stopped, 
that  the  cotton  growers  must  learn  their  lessons  perforce, 
whether  they  would  or  no.  It  was  also  evident  from 
study  and  experience  that  where  diversified  farming 
once  prevailed  there  would  never  be  any  reversion  to 
the  original  type  of  one-crop  methods.  The  simple  and 
substantial  reason  was  that  the  diversificating  always 
proved  to  be  the  more  profitable  method. 

Money  Crop 

It  would  have  been  an  entirely  different  story  if  the 
advent  of  the  boll  weevil  had  made  cotton  raising  en- 
tirely or  nearly  impossible.  For  the  South  needed  one 
great  crop  as  does  every  country,  in  order  that  the  farm- 
er may  have  something  to  sell  besides  raising  what  he 
needs  for  his  own  sustenance,  and  there  was  never  any 
question  but  that  cotton  is  logically  this  money  crop  for 
the  South.  But  the  observer  who  knew  the  record  of 
history  had  a  right  to  be  confident.  No  predatory  insect 
enemy  of  agriculture,  no  matter  how  great  its  num- 
bers or  wide-spread  its  depredations,  has  permanently 
affected  the  output  of  any  great  agricultural  product 
in  any  extended  area.  Sooner  or  later  either  man  or 
nature  has  found  a  remedy.  The  experience  of  Arkan- 
sas, and  now  of  the  South,  has  given  this  verdict  fresh 
proof.  While  it  is  true  that  the  ravages  of  the  boll 
weevil  continue,  it  is  equally  true  that  great  yields  of 
cotton  are  being  raised  in  spite  of  these  losses  and  the 


38  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

fear  of  the  weevil  in  the  southern  states,  as  a  permanent 
deterrent  to  cotton  production  on  a  large  scale  no  longer 
exists. 

Building  Up  Business 

What  remained  to  be  done,  after  that  survey  of  near- 
ly a  generation  ago  was  completed,  was  merely  to  lay 
deep  the  foundations  of  future  business  upon  the  assured 
basis  of  intelligent  preparation  and  study.  The  nature 
of  such  action  depended  largely  upon  the  character  of  the 
business,  but  the  methods  were  much  alike  in  all  lines  of 
commercial  life.  They  meant  primarily  the  establish- 
ment of  close  business  relations  with  all  sections  of  the 
state  where  progress  and  advancement  seemed  most  likely 
to  take  permanent  root.  They  meant  likewise  closer  can- 
vassing for  business  in  such  sections.  They  meant  care- 
ful and  intelligent  merchandising  to  supply  those  goods 
for  which  there  would  be  an  increasing  demand  because 
of  changed  conditions,  and  equally  close  watch  on  those 
articles  for  which  there  would  be  less  call  because  of 
these  same  changed  conditions.  They  meant  an  earnest 
effort  to  teach  better  credit  and  merchandising  methods 
to  those  local  dealers  who  were  slowly  emerging  from 
the  antiquated  ways  of  the  past.  They  meant  an  intelli- 
gent interest  in  the  progress  of  the  state  and  such  partici- 
pation in  this  movement  as  might  be  practicable.  And 
they  likewise  meant  the  continuance  of  the  same  patient 
study  of  conditions  and  development  as  was  given  to  the 
original  survey,  so  that  salesmanship  and  merchandising 
might  be  in  constant  touch  with  ever-changing  condi- 
tions. 

What  was  early  apparent  to  the  makers  of  the  sur- 
vey is  now  apparent  to  all;  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  stock 
of  the  people  had  preserved  its  native  qualities  through- 


ARKANSAS 


39 


out  all  the  generations  of  trial  and  stress  and  needed 
only  the  compelling  impulse  of  opportunity  and  creative 
suggestion  to  come  into  its  own.  And  so  Wisdom  has 
been  justified  of  her  children. 


KANSAS 

Advertising  Promoter 

The  study  of  business  possibilities  in  Kansas  some 
twenty-five  years  ago  showed  that  the  state's  develop- 
ment was  distinguished  by  the  absence  of  many  of  those 
factors  which  mark  the  likelihood  of  future  progress  in 
most  countries.  The  usual  scheme  of  advertisement 
which  any  city  or  locality  or  state  employs,  is  to  tell  of 
the  innumerable  resources,  actual  and  potential,  which  it 
possesses  and  to  dilate  upon  the  great  prosperity  which 
must  ensue  when  these  resources  are  fully  developed. 
If  at  times  the  promoters  of  such  advertising  are  hard 
put  to  paint  a  glowing  and  attractive  picture  and  still 
confine  themselves  within  the  bounds  of  truth,  in  such 
cases  they  tell  of  beautiful  scenery,  choice  society,  and 
pure  water,  after  the  fashion  of  Sir  Andrew  Aguecheek 
in  Shakespeare's  comedy  who  could  muster  only  one  com- 
mendation of  a  certain  locality,  "Marry,  good  air." 

A  Rolling  Prairie 

Those  who  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  might  have 
made  a  study  of  the  future  of  Kansas  from  the  conven- 
tional point  of  view,  would  have  misconceived  grievously 
the  real  situation  and  its  likelihoods  and  the  reasons  for 
the  present  great  progress  and  advancement  of  the  Sun- 
flower State.  To  the  casual  observer  Kansas  is  not  a 
picturesque  state,  nor  one  of  highly  attractive  scenery. 
It  is  not  a  land  of  babbling  brooks  or  shady  dells,  for  in 
common  with  most  of  the  great  plains  states  it  is  rather 
deficient  in  water  in  the  form  of  lakes  and  rivers  com- 

40 


KANSAS  41 

pared  with  the  states  to  the  east  and  north.  It  has  but 
fe'w  elevations  and  hills,  and  no  mountains  whatever, 
being  in  the  main  a  vast  rolling  prairie  rising  gradually 
from  the  eastern  border  to  the  Colorado  line. 

Mines 

Kansas  nas  large  deposits  of  coal  in  the  east  and 
southeast  and  there  is  a  suspicion  that  these  deposits 
underlie  the  entire  state.  In  the  southeast  there  are  great 
mines  of  lead  and  zinc,  and  at  present  a  large  produc- 
tion of  coal-oil  and  natural  gas.  But  the  development  of 
these  underground  resources  has  been  largely  within 
comparatively  recent  times  and  was  not  greatly  in  evi- 
dence when  our  story  begins.  It  has  very  large  deposits 
likewise  of  building  stones,  limestone  and  sandstone, 
mostly  in  the  eastern  portion. 

Few  Forests 

As  you  travel  over  the  state  you  note  that  there  are 
practically  no  forests  of  any  extent.  Though  you  see  a 
good  many  trees,  probably  they  were  all  planted  since 
the  white  men  settled  the  country.  You  readily  draw 
the  conclusion  that  it  is  not  naturally  a  state  with  any 
great  lumber  industry,  and  that  much  of  the  lumber 
used  must  come  from  other  states.  Also  you  readily 
draw  the  further  conclusion  that  there  will  not  be  much 
demand  for  certain  kinds  of  articles,  such  as  axes  and 
cross-cut  saws,  which  are  associated  with  the  felling  of 
trees.  You  see  some  fruit  trees,  mostly  apple  and  peach, 
in  the  southeastern  and  eastern  portion  of  the  state,  but 
you  see  clearly  that  the  commercial  fruit  industry  is  not 
a  large  one. 

Manufacturing,  twenty-five  years  ago,  was  hardly  to  be 
found  in  Kansas  and  even  today  is  of  minor  importance. 


42  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

Weather  Extremes 

Agriculture,  or  farming,  and  its  accompaniment,  live- 
stock raising,  were  then  and  are  now  essentially  the  most 
important  industries  of  the  people.  Consequently  the 
climate  was,  and  continues  to  be,  the  keynote  of  the  situa- 
tion. Nor  is  it  a  climate  of  that  regular  well-ordered 
nature  largely  prevalent  in  the  states  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi River.  The  Kansas  climate,  in  fact,  leads  to  a 
negation  of  those  sentiments  which  we  of  the  temperate 
zone  are  apt  to  entertain  as  to  the  beneficent  attitude  of 
nature  towards  man.  They  have  a  different  conception 
and  a  different  attitude  in  the  tropics,  where  bitter  ex- 
perience has  taught  them  of  the  sinister  and  unrelenting 
hostility  to  man  of  animal  and  vegetable  life,  and  of 
the  weather  against  whose  deadly  influence  he  must  for- 
ever be  taking  precautions  lest  he  perish.  The  last  view 
is  very  familiar  in  Kansas.  Long  ago  the  inhabitants  of 
the  state  were  disillusioned  as  to  an  ever-beneficent 
Nature.  They  saw  Nature  in  her  true  garb,  sometimes 
kindly,  sometimes  cruel,  but  in  all  her  ever-varying 
moods  utterly  indifferent  to  man  and  his  works.  For 
the  climate  of  Kansas  is  by  turns  a  blessing  and  a 
calamity.  There  are  years  when  the  clouds  drop  fatness, 
and  other  years  when  in  the  words  of  Elijah,  "the  sky  is 
as  brass  and  the  earth  as  iron  underneath." 

Moreover  the  topography  of  the  state,  devoid  of  hills 
and  mountains  and  largely  of  forests,  offers  little  resist- 
ance to  those  ceaseless  winds  following  in  the  track  of 
both  the  southwestern  and  northwestern  barometric 
"lows"  which  move  in  regular  procession  across  the 
state.  These  constantly  prevailing  winds  add  much  to 
the  natural  dry  ness  of  the  state,  remote  as  it  is  from  any 
body  of  water.  But  the  land  has  abundant  sunshine,  thus 
adding  much  to  its  agricultural  possibilities. 


KANSAS  43 

Rainfall 

The  real  problem  is  the  uncertainty  of  the  rainfall. 
In  the  eastern  portion  the  average  precipitation  is  about 
forty  inches,  decreasing  progressively  westward  until  at 
the  Colorado  line,  approximately  a  distance  of  four 
hundred  miles,  it  is  less  than  twenty  inches.  The  range 
of  variation  is  from  25  to  50  inches  in  the  eastern  sec- 
tion and  from  12  to  29  inches  in  the  western.  The  sum- 
mers of  small  precipitation  are  always  those  of  extremely 
high  temperature,  116  degrees  having  been  recorded, 
often  accompanied  by  hot  winds  which  wither  and  de- 
stroy all  living  vegetation  as  with  the  breath  of  a  furnace. 
The  wet  years  and  the  dry  years  have  a  fashion,  like 
most  things  in  nature,  of  flocking  together  in  two  or 
three  successive  seasons.  It  is  a  meteorological  phe- 
nomenon as  old  as  history  and  was  typified  in  Pharaoh's 
dream  of  the  seven  fat  kine,  or  seven  years  of  good 
crops,  followed  by  the  seven  lean  kine  or  seven  years 
of  drought  and  consequent  disaster. 

During  the  wet  years  the  farmers  of  Kansas  used  to 
raise  great  crops.  But  when  the  turn  came  and  the 
rains  almost  ceased  the  farmers,  especially  in  the  western 
section  of  the  state,  usually  went  broke  and  had  to  be 
"carried"  over  the  hard  times  by  the  storekeepers  and 
local  bankers. 

Disillusionment 

For  a  time  during  the  years  of  precipitation  there 
prevailed  the  current  delusion,  not  yet  wholly  overcome, 
that  the  climate  was  changing,  that  rainfall  was  increas- 
ing, that  planting  trees  and  cultivating  the  soil  produced 
greater  precipitation.  Meanwhile  pitiless  Nature,  who 
is  no  respecter  of  men  or  their  theories,  had  up  her 
sleeve  a  bitter  disillusionment  for  these  dwellers  in  a 


44  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

fool's  paradise,  in  the  shape  of  an  irregular  yet  relentless 
recurrence  of  those  years  of  drought  and  misfortune 
which  were  the  source  of  most  of  the  troubles  of  the  peo- 
ple of  the  state.  They  saw  the  yield  of  wheat  drop  from 
74,000,000  bushels  in  1892  to  16,000,000  bushels  in  1895; 
corn  from  138,000,000  bushels  in  1892  to  18,000,000 
bushels  in  1894;  and  the  value  of  all  live  stock  decline 
from  $109,000,000  in  1892  to  $73,000,000  in  1896.  More- 
over, in  their  experience  these  same  farmers  had  seen  the 
production  of  wheat  cut  in  half,  on  the  same  acreage,  in 
a  dry  year  as  compared  with  a  wet  year,  and  the  yield  of 
corn,  on  practically  the  same  acreage,  decline  from  247,- 
000,000  bushels  in  one  year  to  75,000,000  in  another 
year. 

"Sixteen  to  One" 

Finally  many  farmers,  especially  in  western  Kansas, 
gave  up  the  unequal  contest  and  abandoning  their  farms 
trekked  eastward.  So  in  a  number  of  counties  popula- 
tion declined  and  business  suffered  accordingly.  Finally, 
two  bad  crop  years  culminated  in  the  disastrous  drought 
of  1894.  Then  followed  the  campaign  for  free  silver, 
when  Kansas  for  the  time  being  cast  all  her  former 
political  idols  to  the  dogs  and  went  hell-bent  for  the 
sixteen  to  one  ratio.  That  was  the  winter  of  her  dis- 
content, and  the  depth  of  her  despair.  But  the  "sun  of 
York"  was  soon  to  rise,  for  just  then  came  the  turn- 
ing point  and  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  troublous  times 
for  Kansas. 

"More  Corn  and  Less  Hell" 

At  this  time  the  fortune  and  the  reputation  of  tne 
state  were  alike  at  their  lowest  ebb.  Kansas  was  a  by- 
word for  mortgaged  farms,  discontented  and  distressed 


KANSAS  45 

farmers,  and  wild  and  impossible  theories  of  govern- 
ment and  finance.  "What's  the  matter  with  Kansas?" 
was  a  current  gibe  of  the  times.  Those  were  the  days 
in  which  the  farmers  of  Kansas  were  advised  by  their 
wives  to  "raise  more  corn  and  less  hell."  The  people 
of  the  state  were  regarded  by  many  unknowing  people 
throughout  the  country  as  being  merely  sublimated 
cranks. 

Investment  and  capital  fought  shy  of  the  state  be- 
cause .of  its  free  silver  proclivities  and  the  retaliatory 
laws  passed  against  outside  investors  and  the  railroads 
within  the  state.  The  railroad  laws  had  indeed  a  good 
deal  of  justification;  as  with  most  western  states  at  that 
time,  Kansas  suffered  from  the  predatory  exploitation  of 
certain  railroad  financiers  to  whom  railroad  management 
was  merely  a  great  game  at  the  expense  of  the  stock- 
holders and  the  people.  But  the  railroad  laws  did  not 
help  the  state's  reputation  with  the  business  world.  The 
bitterness  grew  on  both  sides  to  an  extent  that  took 
years  to  assuage  and  remove.  Yet  at  this  critical  and 
tumultous  period,  when  misunderstanding  and  miscon- 
ception on  both  sides  was  at  its  height,  it  needed  but  a 
modicum  of  common  sense  and  the  study  of  experience 
to  realize  that  the  state  offered  in  the  future  one  of 
the  surest  and  most  profitable  fields  for  business  enter- 
prise and  expansion.  The  key  to  the  problem  lay  entirely 
in  the  study  of  the  people  and  the  trend  of  their  men- 
tality. 

Idealism 

Unless  you  allowed  preconceived  ideas  and  prejudices 
to  blind  your  mental  vision  it  was  perfectly  obvious  that 
the  people  of  Kansas  were  desperately  in  earnest  in  what- 
ever they  undertook,  and  that  idealism  was  their  guiding 


46  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

star.  In  the  past,  in  the  slavery  question  for  instance, 
time  had  given  proof  that  their  idealism  was  something 
more  than  mere  fanaticism.  Their  low  percentage  of 
illiteracy,  the  statistics  of  education  and  the  money 
spent  for  it,  gave  evidence  of  a  people  to  whom  education 
and  intelligence  were  matters  of  vital  import.  Their 
apparent  adherence  to  certain  theories  held  to  be  anar- 
chistic and  revolutionary  by  the  staid  and  conservative 
East  was  merely  a  case  of  perverted  democracy  and  ideal- 
ism. The  cult  of  free  silver  was  eagerly  embraced  by 
the  people  of  Kansas  as  well  as  by  those  of  many  other 
western  states,  not,  as  was  often  ignorantly  stated,  be- 
cause the  farming  community  wished  to  pay  their  debts 
in  fifty  cents  on  the  dollar  currency,  but  rather  because 
the  theory  appealed  to  them  as  a  protest  against  "plu- 
tocracy and  the  rule  of  the  money  changers."  In  all  times 
and  in  all  countries  the  lure  of  fiat  money  has  appealed 
to  the  many  from  its  semblance  of  democratic  and  popu- 
lar characteristics.  It  was  not  simply,  nor  even  pri- 
marily, a  financial  problem  to  the  people  of  Kansas  but 
an  apparently  justifiable  means  of  escape  from  the  seem- 
ingly unbearable  burden  of  low  prices  to  the  producer; 
just  as  on  the  other  hand  our  greatest  problem  today  is 
the  high  cost  of  living  to  the  consumer,  bred  by  the  unrea- 
sonable and  excessive  cost  of  all  commodities. 

Conservatism 

Kansas  was  then  as  now  a  commonwealth  of  farmers, 
and  anarchy  and  social  revolution  never  get  very  far 
with  a  farmer.  He  is  a  curious  contradiction  of  radi- 
calism as  regards  the  social  and  economic  problems  which 
adversely  affect  his  welfare,  and  ultra  conservatism  on 
the  score  of  landed  property  which  is  his  staff  of  life. 
Over  and  over  again  there  have  been  associations  of 


KANSAS  47 

farmers  who  have  startled  the  reactionary  and  conser- 
vative elements  of  the  nations  by  the  theories  they  advo- 
cated. But  nothing  harmful  ever  resulted,  for  these 
movements  came  to  an  end  when  the  midsummer  mad- 
ness passed  and  the  natural  conservatism  and  good  sense 
of  the  dweller  on  the  soil  asserted  itself.  For  possession 
of  property,  especially  farming  property,  from  which 
one  makes  a  living  is  the  one  sure  specific  which  renders 
the  owner  immune  to  anarchy  and  revolution.  The  dis- 
integrating elements  of  modern  civilization  are  bred  in 
the  slums  and  tenements  of  great  cities  and  industrial 
centers,  and  not  on  the  countryside. 

Schools 

Not  only  was  the  average  Kansan  a  farmer  but  he 
was  likewise  an  educated  man.  Education  has  always 
been  a  name  to  conjure  with  in  the  Sunflower  State.  It 
is  a  commonwealth  of  readers.  The  actual  attendance 
at  schools  has  always  been  very  high  in  proportion  to  the 
population.  The  percentage  of  illiteracy  is  the  third 
lowest  among  the  forty-eight  states,  despite  the  large 
influx  at  one  time  of  a  great  number  of  negroes  from 
the  South.  The  number  of  students  at  colleges,  universi- 
ties, and  other  higher  institutions  of  learning,  is  larger 
per  capita  of  population  than  in  any  other  state  in  the 
Union. 

Moreover  Kansas  was,  and  is,  a  country  of  idealism. 
In  Kansas  there  abide  intelligence,  education,  and  ideal- 
ism. And  the  greatest  of  these  is  idealism,  for  without 
ideals  no  state  or  country  can  ever  be  sure  of  a  civiliza- 
tion that  does  not  lapse  into  degeneracy  and  decay. 

The  first  settlers  in  Kansas  were  thoughtful,  active- 
minded  men  and  women.  They  came  to  a  land  that  hap- 
pily had  neither  history  nor  precedent  and  were  not  bur- 


48  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

dened,  therefore,  with  traditions  which  are  beautiful  and 
picturesque  in  literature  and  art  but  too  often  are  mill- 
stones about  the  neck  of  social  and  economic  progress. 
Their  land,  besides,  was  one  whose  topography  offered 
no  obstacles  to  road  building  and  in  which  communication 
was  everywhere  easy.  Local  prejudices  and  provincial- 
ism could  not  thrive  under  conditions  which  brought  con- 
stant and  free  intermingling  of  the  inhabitants. 

There  is  something,  moreover,  in  the  unbroken  stretch 
of  the  horizon  and  the  endless  sweep  of  the  winds  from 
the  far-distant  Rockies  that  typifies  the  breadth  and  free- 
dom of  thought  that  characterizes  the  people  of  the  state. 
They  have  always  cherished  ideals,  from  the  remote 
days  when  they  fought  slavery  so  bitterly.  They  were 
among  the  earliest  to  adopt  woman's  suffrage  and  pro- 
hibition. And  for  all  these  things  they  were  regarded 
as  cranks  and  fanatics.  But  they  lived  to  see  prohibition 
become  the  law  of  the  land,  and  woman's  suffrage 
adopted  as  the  creed  of  both  political  parties.  They 
have  even  witnessed  the  general  acquiescence  of  the  peo- 
ple in  some  of  the  theories  of  the  "Middle-of-the-Road 
Populists"  of  twenty-five  years  ago. 

Land  of  Common  Sense 

In  the  days  of  their  desperate  distress  they  clung 
with  deathless  grip  to  those  ideals  whose  realization  has 
finally  led  them  through  the  desert  and  into  the  country 
where  they  would  be.  It  needed  no  prophetic  seer  to 
realize  that  a  people  so  constituted  must  ultimately  "find 
themselves"  by  the  use  of  that  common  sense  and  that 
craving  for  education  with  which  they  were  so  largely 
endowed.  For  Kansas  is  peculiarly  and  characteristically 
a  land  of  common  sense  and  practicality,  neither  of  which 
qualities  preclude  the  possession  of  plentiful  imagination. 


KANSAS  .  49 

The  only  problem,  then,  was  as  to  whether  the  Kansas 
farmer  would  learn  the  lesson  of  adapting  his  ways  in 
agriculture  to  a  climate  which  really  did  not  change,  only 
varied  somewhat  within  certain  observed  limits,  or 
whether  he  would  keep  on  going  up  against  fate  and  keep 
on  going  broke  by  blindly  clinging  to  methods  of  culti- 
vation and  a  selection  of  plants  to  be  cultivated  which 
were  all  right  in  a  moist  eastern  climate  and  all  wrong  on 
the  dry  Kansas  plains.  That  way  only  failure  lay  as  the 
grim  past  had  shown  only  too  clearly. 

Farming  Methods 

But  the  student  of  conditions  even  at  that  day  could 
see  that  a  population  constituted  like  that  of  Kansas 
would  never  rest  till  a  way  out  was  found.  There  were, 
in  fact,  four  ways  all  more  or  less  akin  and  they  were 
all  found  and  followed  in  the  slow  process  of  time.  The 
driving  force  came  from  the  intelligence,  the  education, 
and  the  resolution  of  the  farmer  himself.  He  was  aided 
and  guided  by  systematic  experiments,  followed  up  by  the 
plain  and  persistent  teaching  of  the  federal  Department 
of  Agriculture  and  the  State  Agricultural  College  at 
Manhattan.  These  "ways  out"  were: 

Use  of  dry- farming  methods 
Cultivation  of  drought-resisting  plants 
Employment  of  irrigation  where  possible 
Building  of  silos 

By  these  means  Kansas  agriculture  was  adapted  to  the 
ways  of  the  climate. 

Dry-farming  is  as  old  as  agriculture  and  was  her 
handmaiden  in  the  cradle  of  the  race,  the  semiarid  Far 
East,  in  the  dim  historic  past.  It  is  merely  applied  com- 
mon sense  and  science,  which  seek  by  certain  methods  of 


50  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

constant  cultivation  to  prevent  the  evaporation  of  mois- 
ture in  the  soil  and  thus  conserve  it  for  the  use  of  the 
plants. 

Drought-Resisting  Plants 

The  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  were  ransacked  for 
drought-resisting  plants,  the  non-saccharine  sorghum 
grains,  kafir,  milo  and  feterita,  sudan  grass  and  alfalfa. 
They  were  brought  from  the  arid  steppes  of  Mongolia, 
from  the  burning  plains  of  the  Sudan,  from  the  ages-old 
desert  of  Egypt,  from  South  Africa,  where  in  the  strug- 
gle for  existence  through  countless  ages  they  had  sur- 
vived as  the  fittest  of  plants  to  live  and  flourish  in  a 
land  where  water  is  scarce  and  more  precious  than 
rubies. 

The  years  that  have  followed  have  witnessed  the 
steady  increase  in  production  of  these  hardy  plants,  and 
the  consequent  growth  in  value  of  live  stock  and  dairy 
products  now  that  food  for  man  and  beast  is  assured  in 
plentiful  supply  despite  hot  winds,  prolonged  droughts, 
and  the  fierce  heats  of  summer.  Indian  corn  is  no 
longer  the  only  grain  for  live  stock  feed,  since  its  yield 
is  too  uncertain  in  dry  seasons  and  the  drought-resisting 
plants  supply  its  lack  in  the  days  of  distress  when  rain- 
fall is  not. 

Moreover  the  farmers  of  Kansas  learned  the  lesson 
that  the  value  of  rainfall  depends  not  so  much  upon  its 
amount  as  upon  its  distribution.  Fortunately,  in  Kansas 
from  71  to  78  per  cent  of  the  total  annual  precipitation 
is  in  the  crop-growing  months,  from  April  to  September. 
So  the  acreage  of  winter  wheat  has  been  much  expanded 
in  the  past  score  of  years,  because  wheat  matures  and 
is  harvested  before  the  months  of  July  and  August  when 
heat  and  drought  most  prevail. 


KANSAS  51 

Silos 

Silos  are  the  savings  banks  and  reservoirs  of  feed  for 
live  stock,  to  furnish  them  green  and  nutritious  food 
through  the  winter  and  in  the  dry  days  when  pastures  are 
burned.  Growing  crops  threatened  with  drought  can 
be  cut  and  safely  stowed  away  in  silos  thus  largely  solv- 
ing the  problem  of  feed  in  the  years  of  poor  crops.  Silos 
fulfil,  indeed,  in  overflowing  measure  the  second  part  of 
the  definition  which  the  little  Sunday  School  girl  who 
had  mixed  her  catechism  gave  of  a  lie,  "An  abomination 
in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,  but  an  ever-present  help  in 
time  of  trouble." 

Charts  and  diagrams  tell  some  of  the  story,  but  even 
more  striking  evidence  comes  often  at  first  hand.  In 
one  of  my  trips  through  Kansas  at  the  time  the  survey 
already  referred  to  was  in  hand,  I  noticed  an  increasing 
number  of  poultry,  mostly  chickens  of  fancy  breed, 
where  the  "dunghill  fowl"  had  once  reigned.  I  saw 
small  flocks  of  sheep  upon  farms.  There  were  more 
silos  than  before.  There  was  more  live  stock,  also  there 
was  much  alfalfa  and  a  species  of  corn  known  as  kafir 
corn,  new  at  that  time  to  me,  which  I  was  told  was  more 
drought-resisting  than  Indian  maize  and  a  sure  forage 
crop  often  when  Indian  corn  withered  away  because  of 
the  fervent  heat. 

Passing  through  Wichita  I  found  a  great  fair  in 
progress  and  a  great  display  of  kafir  corn.  There  the 
experts  from  the  Agricultural  College  were  telling  the 
story  of  kafir,  why  it  was  drought-resisting  and  why  it 
should  be  cultivated  by  the  farmers  of  Kansas.  That 
trip  added  definitely  to  the  proof  that  agriculture  in 
Kansas  was  winning  its  long  fight  against  its  inevitable 
portion  in  life  of  recurring  seasons  of  hot  winds  and 
fierce,  enduring  droughts. 


52  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

Mental  Receptiveness 

In  traveling  through  the  state  you  note  a  certain 
breadth  of  mental  horizon  and  a  receptiveness  to  new 
impressions  among  those  you  meet.  You  note  it  in  the 
newspapers,  the  talk  of  the  people,  and  the  nature  and 
up-to-dateness  of  the  goods  the  stores  have  to  sell.  You 
see  it  likewise  in  the  selection  of  the  books  in  the  cir- 
culating and  public  libraries.  You  note  in  the  way  in 
which  the  people  talk,  dress,  live,  and  take  care  of  their 
homes,  a  good  deal  of  elemental  simplicity  and  freedom 
from  display  or  pretence,  which  argues  a  certain  solidity 
of  character  and  steadiness  of  purpose.  Such  a  mental 
attitude  is  apt  to  find  expression,  as  regards  business,  in 
a  demand  for  things  of  merit  and  worth  rather  than  of 
display  and  show. 

The  Automobile 

But  there  is  no  lack  of  progressiveness  among  these 
people,  no  lack  of  alertness  in  taking  up  new  ideas  ana 
devices.  Kansas  stands  first  among  the  states  in  the 
percentage  of  mileage  of  public  roads  to  its  area  although 
they  are  mostly  natural  dirt  roads  rather  than  hard-sur- 
faced turnpikes.  The  ease  of  communication  signifies 
much  traveling  about,  and  the  consequent  freedom  from 
provincialism  and  insularity.  When  the  automobile  ap- 
peared on  the  scene  it  was  an  easy  conclusion  that  given 
an  intelligent  people  with  easy  means  of  transit  and  com- 
munication there  could  be  only  one  result,  a  large  market 
for  automobiles  and  accessories,  as  has  since  proved  to 
be  the  case.  In  the  per  capita  ownership  of  automobiles 
Kansas  is  close  to  the  top  among  the  states.  It  is  a 
curious  and  interesting  fact,  we  may  here  note,  brought 
out  by  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  automobile  situation, 
that  the  percentage  of  ownership  of  automobiles  in  any 


KANSAS 


53 


community  or  state  is  determined  primarily  not  by  the 
presence  of  good  roads  and  the  possession  of  wealth  but 
rather  by  the  intelligence  and  progressive  spirit  of  its 
people. 

Flourishing  Business 

Because  of  the  growth  and  practice  of  intelligent  agri- 
culture there  has  been  steady  development  in  all  the 
resources  of  the  state,  and  in  a  demand  for  the  com- 
modities required  for  each  of  them.  Fruit  production 
on  a  commercial  scale  is  beginning  to  be  an  important 
industry  in  the  east  and  southeast.  The  vast  oil  fields  are 
now  being  drilled  and  explored  to  the  uttermost,  and 
their  great  flows  have  added  incalculable  wealth  to  the 
state.  Coal  mining  is  a  source  of  great  revenue  and  the 
raising  of  live  stock  is  on  the  increase,  with  all  the  indus- 
tries that  this  implies,  and  has  brought  a  demand  for  all 
the  commodities  that  these  industries  need.  For  instance, 
in  the  dairy  industry  there  is  call  for  cream  separators, 
churns,  cream  and  milk  cans,  and  a  host  of  such  like 
items. 

To  the  outside  world  there  has  come  the  belated  and 
wondering  recognition  of  Kansas  as  a  commonwealth 
where  business  flourishes  and  savings  bank  deposits  in- 
crease, where  are  found  independence  of  thought  and 
speech,  wide-spread  education  and  intelligence,  the  marks 
of  progressive  and  prosperous  people.  The  natural  re- 
sources are  not  many  but  the  inhabitants,  like  Hamlet, 
have  husbanded  them  so  that  they  have  gone  far.  These 
people  typify  the  economic  truth  that  intelligence  and 
education  not  only  increase  the  demand  for  all  the  com- 
modities of  commerce,  but  likewise  distinctly  elevate  the 
quality  of  that  demand  by  a  growing  call  for  the  things 
of  worth  and  merit. 


54  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

So  the  conclusion  of  the  story  of  Kansas  is  that  of  a 
people  who  in  the  time  of  their  tribulation  "came  back" 
by  pitting  their  native  courage,  resolution,  and  intelligence 
against  the  forces  of  an  often  hostile  and  destroying 
nature  and  thus  came  out  on  top. 


NORTH  CAROLINA 

Heredity 

The  matter  of  greatest  moment  in  the  study  of  de- 
velopment in  any  state  lies  in  the  true  perception  of  the 
dominant  and  compelling  factor  which  most  of  all  makes 
for  progress  in  the  future.  Sometimes  the  essential  fac- 
tor lies  hidden  and  to  the  casual  observer  would  seem 
wholly  lacking,  as  in  the  case  of  Arkansas  where  the 
presence  of  every  material  resource  was  of  no  avail  until 
the  slumbering  giant  of  the  spirit  of  its  people  was 
awakened  by  sudden  necessity  in  the  form  of  the  invasion 
of  the  cotton-boll  weevil.  Sometimes,  as  in  Kansas,  it 
is  the  stress  of  environment  and  the  ever-present  threat 
of  an  often  hostile  climate  which  give  the  choice  of  a 
winning  fight  if  the  situation  be  intelligently  met,  or  else 
certain  defeat.  In  every  state  there  is  always  the  ques- 
tion whether  the  source  of  progress  lies  in  heredity  or 
in  environment.  Sometimes,  as  in  Ohio,  heredity  is  an 
inspiration ;  in  Arkansas  heredity  was  largely  a  blight  on 
progress ;  while  in  California  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether 
development  is  to  be  attributed  in  greater  measure  to 
heredity  or  to  environment.  In  the  study  of  North  Caro- 
lina the  problem  was  particularly  complex.  Heredity 
there  seemed  to  be  at  once  a  deterrent  and  an  inspira- 
tion, and  the  workings  and  results  of  the  human  factors 
could  be  discerned  only  after  the  closest  scrutiny. 

Early  Settlers 

The  people  of  North  Carolina  have  always  offered 
strong  contrast  to  their  countrymen  in  the  neighboring 

55 


56  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

states  of  South  Carolina  and  Virginia.  Those  states 
were  aristocratic.  They  were  settled  by  families  of  old 
lineage  and  great  accomplishment.  They  were  the  homes 
of  great  plantations  and  of  definite  and  strongly  marked 
class  distinctions.  They  were  at  the  front  in  every 
emergency,  and  history  is  full  of  their  deeds  and  their 
sacrifices.  They  typified  the  splendor  and  glamor  of  an 
age  that  will  always  be  the  subject  of  romance  and 
poetry.  On  the  other  hand  the  customs  and  ways  of 
life  and  thought  which  they  fostered,  projected  into  prac- 
tical modern  times,  constitute  perhaps  the  greatest  of  all 
handicaps  to  genuine  progress.  Now  in  North  Carolina 
the  great  estates  and  plantations  were  few;  small  farms 
were  many. 

The  early  settlers  were  of  mixed  origin,  but  all  of 
much  the  same  stiff-necked  and  stubborn  type.  They 
were  English  mostly  in  the  beginning,  but  the  English 
were  followed  by  Scotch-Irish,  Swiss,  Huguenots  from 
France,  Lutheran  Germans  from  Pennsylvania,  and  later 
Highlanders  who  fled  from  their  native  heath  in  1746 
after  the  disastrous  rout  of  Culloden.  Although  means 
of  communications  were  easily  available  throughout  the 
state,  save  in  the  mountainous  west,  these  various 
nationalities  were  slow  to  fuse  and  preferred  each  one 
to  "gang  his  ain  gait." 

Revolution  and  Civil  War 

In  Revolutionary  times  the  sons  of  North  Carolina 
had  the  immortal  honor  of  first  expressing  the  American 
spirit  of  independence  in  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration. 
They  were  dangerous  foes  when  once  aroused,  and 
always  bore  themselves  that  the  opposer  might  beware 
of  them.  In  the  Revolutionary  War  the  homespun-clad 
riflemen  at  Cowpens  and  Kings  Mountain  were  the  first 


NORTH   CAROLINA  57 

to  stop  the  conquering  march  of  Cornwallis  and  to  de- 
stroy the  reputation  of  Tarleton.  So  also  during  the 
Civil  War  their  state  was  among  the  last  to  secede,  but 
they  furnished  twice  their  quota  of  soldiers  to  the  Con- 
federate Army  and  won  the  derisive  but  admiring  name 
of  "Tarheels"  because  they  always  stood  fast  and  im- 
movable against  the  fiercest  assaults,  dying  in  their  tracks 
rather  than  retreat.  In  all  their  history  they  illustrated 
the  intensity  of  individualism  and  stubborn  independence, 
with  all  the  natural  defects  and  virtues  of  those  qualities. 

Unmixed  Blood 

At  no  time,  from  the  beginnings  of  the  Colony  up  to 
the  Civil  War,  were  there  outside  influences  of  sufficient 
moment  to  disturb  the  even  tenor  of  their  way  or  to 
change  the  current  of  their  thoughts.  The  emigration 
from  Europe  which  in  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century  swarmed  into  this  country  left  the  southern 
states  untouched.  For  slavery  was  there,  and  the  negro. 
And  even  today  the  mere  presence  of  the  negro  in  great 
numbers  deflects  from  the  South  much  immigration  that 
otherwise  would  trend  that  way.  So  in  North  Carolina 
the  native  white  race  was  unmixed  with  foreign  blood, 
and  there  was  no  influx  from  the  outside  to  question  and 
discredit  their  modes  of  thought  and  customs  of  tradi- 
tion and  inheritance.  On  the  other  hand,  there  was  little 
in  environment  to  hold  them  back  from  change  and  ad- 
vancement, once  the  impulse  to  progress  should  touch 
them. 

Forests  and  Minerals 

The  eastern  portion  of  the  state  is  a  great  coastal  plain, 
slightly  elevated  above  sea-level.  It  is  covered  still  with 
great  forests  of  pine,  except  in  the  numerous  swamps, 


58  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

some  three  million  acres  in  extent  in  all  where  oak, 
cypress,  and  red  gum  are  abundant.  Further  westward 
lies  the  Piedmont  Plateau,  which  is  higher  and  rolling 
and  which  has  more  timber,  chiefly  of  deciduous  hard- 
woods. In  the  western  portion  are  the  mountains,  the 
loftiest  heights  east  of  the  Rockies,  with  still  greater 
forests.  This  vast  supply  of  timber  of  both  hardwood 
and  pine  constitutes  one  great  source  of  wealth.  There 
are  many  minerals  in  North  Carolina  though  few  of 
them  in  large  quantities.  Gold  and  silver  and  tin  are 
found  in  small  measure.  There  are  deposits  of  copper, 
lead,  and  zinc,  and  large  deposits  of  iron  ore.  There 
are  vast  beds  of  clay  and  equally  vast  quarries  of  build- 
ing stones.  Precious  stones  are  found  in  moderation  in 
connection  with  the  largest  producing  mica  mines  in  the 
country.  But  as  yet  the  mineral  resources  of  the  state 
have  scarcely  been  touched. 

Healthy  Climate 

The  climate  of  North  Carolina  is  both  healthy  for 
the  inhabitants  and  unusually  favorable  for  agriculture. 
The  state  lies  out  of  the  general  path  of  the  low  baro- 
metric areas  from  the  west,  and  is  affected  by  those  from 
the  Gulf  and  the  West  Indies  chiefly  on  the  fringe  of 
seacoast.  The  climate  is  tempered  by  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
on  the  east,  while  the  Appalachian  Mountains  protect 
the  country  from  the  severe  blizzards  which  prevail  to 
the  westward.  The  annual  rainfall  varies  from  45  to 
60  inches  in  different  sections.  It  is  usually  sufficient  to 
furnish  abundant  flow  to  the  numerous  streams  which 
traverse  the  state  from  the  Appalachian  Mountains  to 
the  sea  and  which  supply  the  water-power  that  was  to 
make  up  for  the  lack  of  coal.  From  the  storm-swept 
inlet  of  Hatteras  to  the  splendor  of  the  towering  Ap- 


NORTH   CAROLINA  59 

palachian  Ranges  that  have  been  well  called  the  "Land 
of  the  Sky/'  nature  is  at  all  times  friendly  and  bountiful. 
The  wide  range  of  resources  and  possibilities  makes 
North  Carolina  almost  a  self-contained  commonwealth 
in  its  ability  to  supply  its  inhabitants  with  practically 
all  their  needs.  It  is  from  one  of  the  minor  industries 
that  we  get  the  first  glimpse  of  that  inherent  trait  in  the 
people  of  the  state  which  is  the  key  to  the  state's  retarded 
development. 

Fishing  Laws 

A  survey  of  the  seacoast,  with  its  immense  shore 
line  and  innumerable  inlets  with  tributary  rivers,  some 
years  ago  revealed  the  possibilities  of  a  fishing  industry 
which  in  its  essential  elements  was  going  backwards.  Of 
all  industries  fishing  needs  most  careful  nursing  if  it 
is  to  be  perpetuated.  We  were  prone  to  treat  it  in  the 
past  as  we  for  so  long  treated  our  forests,  as  if  it  were 
an  immense  resource  which  our  utmost  drafts  would 
never  deplete.  The  steady  and  alarming  decline  under 
such  treatment,  foreshadowing  certain  exhaustions, 
finally  made  necessary  restrictive  laws  and  careful  re- 
stocking. But  in  these  respects,  until  recently,  North 
Carolina  lagged  far  behind  notwithstanding  the  instruc- 
tive example  set  by  Virginia,  her  next-door  neighbor. 
The  difficulty  lay  in  the  inability  to  get  a  state-wide  inter- 
est in  the  general  proposition.  Each  community  thought 
only  of  itself,  of  its  own  interest,  of  its  own  local  rights 
and  independence. 

For  a  long  time  all  efforts  to  make  the  matter  one  of 
common  interest  were  defeated.  Such  laws  as  were  in  ex- 
istence were  constantly  violated  by  stubborn  communities 
which  felt  that  their  private  rights  were  being  invaded  and 
that  they  should  be  exceptions  to  the  general  rule.  That 


60  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

most  of  the  objectors  were  perfectly  sincere  in  their  atti- 
tude there  was  no  question.  But  the  attitude  was  caused 
by  the  Old  Adam  of  sturdy  and  rampant  individualism, 
not  yet  sensitive  to  the  interests  of  the  public  at  large, 
which  we  shall  see  cropping  out  later  in  education  and 
agriculture.  It  is  a  good  augury  for  the  future  that  North 
Carolina  has  now  a  new  state-wide  fisheries  law  pro- 
viding for  the  propagation  of  species  as  the  first  step  in 
the  rehabilitation  of  this  industry. 

Retarded  Agriculture 

North  Carolina  is  essentially  an  agricultural  state  and 
has  many  farmers  on  many  small  farms.  Of  the  total 
area  of  land,  however,  only  about  29  per  cent  is  im- 
proved. The  remainder  consists  of  swamps  and  over- 
flowed lands,  of  mountains  and  forests,  and  the  greatest 
problem  of  all  of  cut-over  pine  lands  now  mostly  wastes 
of  uncultivated  sand  barrens.  It  is  true  that  according 
to  statistics  the  state  was  making  steady  progress  of  late 
years,  both  in  larger  total  yields  and  in  greater  produc- 
tion per  acre.  But  the  farming  communities  were  not 
prospering  as  they  should,  and  the  difficulty  lay  some- 
where in  the  farming  methods. 

Fortunately  there  ensued  a  movement  most  char- 
acteristic of  the  people,  and  one  of  far-reaching  moment 
and  promise  for  the  future  of  the  commonwealth.  The 
impulse  came  from  within,  not  without.  It  was  typical 
of  the  manner  in  which  the  people  of  the  state  face  every 
problem,  honestly,  courageously,  with  no  desire  save  that 
of  finding  out  the  truth  and  endeavoring  to  remedy  the 
situation.  There  was  none  of  that  boasting,  too  com- 
mon in  America,  about  great  resources  and  advantages 
while  the  resources  are  lying  undeveloped  and  the  oppor- 
tunities have  been  neglected;  none  of  that  glorifying 


NORTH    CAROLINA  6l 

the  past  and  its  great  deeds,  even  though  the  present  fails 
to  live  up  to  its  glorious  inheritance  and  traditions ;  none 
of  those  things,  in  fact,  which  are  wont  to  pass  for 
patriotic  state  pride  and  instead  are  mere  bombast  and 
words,  words,  words.  These  North  Carolinians  wanted 
no  fool's  paradise;  rather,  they  were  determined  to  size 
up  the  situation  as  it  existed. 

North  Carolina  Club 

This  movement  and  this  sentiment  found  fitting  ex- 
pression in  the  North  Carolina  Club,  an  association  made 
up  from  the  students  and  faculty  of  the  state  university. 
The  purpose  of  the  club  was  the  advancement  of  the 
commonwealth  in  every  phase  of  modern  life.  Its  mem- 
bers undertook  to  study  the  general  situation  of  the 
state,  to  get  the  facts,  and  then  to  see  what  could  be 
done.  They  found  that  one  prime  difficulty  with  North 
Carolina  agriculture  was  that  great  sections  were  almost 
entirely  devoted  to  single  crops,  cotton  or  tobacco,  under 
the  age-old  delusion  that  since  these  were  profitable 
money  crops  their  cultivation  must  enrich  the  farmers 
who  raised  them.  In  this  delusion  the  farmers  lost  sight 
of  the  profound  truth  which  not  only  underlies  farming 
but  all  state  and  national  life,  that  the  farm  must  first 
of  all  be  self-contained,  that  it  must  produce  its  own 
food  for  man  and  beast  as  far  as  soil  and  climate  permit. 

Need  of  Diversification 

By  careful  comparison  it  was  found  that  North  Caro- 
lina produced  more  in  dollars  and  cents  value  per  acre 
because  of  her  money  crops  than  did  the  states  of  the 
Middle  West  and  West,  but  that  she  retained  less  of  the 
money  from  her  crops  because  so  much  went  to  those 
other  states  to  buy  food  for  man  and  beast.  Thus,  in 


62  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

entire  contrast  to  the  agricultural  spirit  of  the  times,  her 
production  was  larger  per  acre  and  less  per  man  than  that 
of  the  states  in  the  West.  It  was  found  that  she  sadly 
lacked  equipment  in  suitable  and  necessary  farm  ma- 
chinery and  farm  buildings.  It  was  found  that  the  peo- 
ple were  far  from  realizing  that  farming  as  a  successful 
issue  must  commence  with  a  well-equipped  plant.  Farm 
income  in  North  Carolina  was  principally  from  the  sale 
of  crops,  while  in  the  West  it  came  from  live  stock  and 
animal  products.  It  needed  but  a  little  experience  to 
demonstrate  which  of  the  two  methods  was  the  more 
profitable. 

There  was  no  calamitous  boll  weevil  invasion  at  the 
time  to  bring  home  to  the  farmers  the  vital  need  of 
diversified  farming.  The  campaign  had  to  be  one  of 
deliberate  persuasion  and  demonstration.  Many  volun- 
teers took  part  and  the  State  Agricultural  College  was 
camping  on  the  job,  but  for  a  time  the  missionaries  made 
slow  progress.  The  first  serious  problem  they  encoun- 
tered was  the  tragic  percentage  of  illiteracy  not  only 
among  the  negroes  but  also  among  the  whites. 

Education 

In  common  with  many  of  the  southern  states,  educa- 
tion practically  collapsed  during  the  Civil  War  and  for 
some  time  afterwards.  In  time  a  new  start  was  made, 
but  progress  was  much  hampered  by  constitutional  re- 
strictions as  to  the  amount  and  proportion  of  taxes  which 
could  be  levied  for  educational  purposes.  This  difficulty 
was  still  further  enhanced  by  one  of  those  court  decisions 
of  an  antiquated  and  fossilized  judiciary,  one  of  the 
calamities  of  American  public  affairs  which  often  block 
the  progress  of  reform  movements  for  a  long  period  of 
time.  Soon  after  the  turn  of  the  century,  however,  the 


NORTH    CAROLINA  63 

realization  of  the  great  need  of  education  began  to  make 
headway.  A  more  modern  and  enlightened  court  re- 
versed the  former  ruling,  thus  permitting  a  liberal  inter- 
pretation of  tax  laws  and  making  possible  the  appropria- 
tion of  greater  sums  of  money  for  school  purposes.  As 
with  the  fisheries,  however,  the  question  of  progress 
turned  really  upon  the  qualities  of  the  people. 

The  extreme  individualism  of  the  people  of  the  state 
tended,  as  it  always  does,  towards  provincialism  and  con- 
sequent illiteracy.  Education  must  be  a  state-wide  affair  if 
it  is  to  reach  and  affect  all  the  people  of  the  commonwealth. 
Where  the  appropriation  of  necessary  funds  is  left  in 
the  hands  of  single  communities,  disinterested  and  per- 
haps antagonistic,  the  percentage  of  illiteracy  is  always 
high.  The  remedy  was  found,  however,  in  the  same 
awakened  individualistic  conscience  that  only  needed  to 
be  shown  its  duty  to  immediately  set  about  its  perform- 
ance. Today  in  the  old  North  State  the  steady  reduc- 
tion in  illiteracy  is  only  a  matter  of  time ;  the  indifference 
of  the  people  is  gone. 

Temperament 

The  second  obstacle  to  better  farming  methods  arose 
from  the  same  qualities  of  personality.  Community  work 
is  essential  to  the  spread  of  the  spirit  and  practice  of 
modern  scientific  agriculture.  It  is  a  matter  of  demon- 
strations and  lectures,  of  many  exhibits  at  fairs  and  else- 
where, of  the  results  of  the  new  methods,  of  associations 
of  farmers  who  together  adopt  the  new  ways.  To  make 
converts  one  by  one  is  a  slow  and  almost  impossible  per- 
formance. Some  callings,  moreover,  are  naturally  con- 
servative and  cling  closely  to  the  ways  and  customs  of 
their  forebears.  This  is  particularly  true  of  agricul- 
ture, inasmuch  as  its  followers  formerly  learned  their 


64  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

business  only  from  their  fathers  by  word  of  mouth  and 
by  example,  and  not  at  all  from  books,  and  consequently 
never  thought  to  question  the  infallibility  of  these  les- 
sons. The  farmers  of  North  Carolina  were  both  tem- 
peramentally and  traditionally  slow  to  change  until  it  was 
brought  sharply  home  to  them  that  they  were  pursuing  a 
wrong  system. 

The  Great  War 

The  Great  War  had  a  profound  influence.  Its  first 
effect  was  the  low  price  of  cotton  in  1914  and  1915  which 
discouraged  the  raising  of  this  staple  on  any  extensive 
scale  and  consequently  turned  the  thoughts  of  the 
farmers  to  diversified  agriculture.  Later  came  the  gen- 
eral call  for  increased  food  production  to  feed  our  allies 
across  the  water.  This  was  a  vivid  and  forceful  example 
of  the  shortsightedness  of  a  great  nation  like  England, 
vulnerable  in  the  extreme  because  of  her  utter  depend- 
ence upon  other  countries  for  food  and  clothing.  So  the 
efforts  of  the  federal  and  state  departments  of  agricul- 
ture and  the  state  agricultural  colleges  were  no  longer 
as  the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness.  There  was 
the  unanswerable  example  of  the  absolute  necessity  of 
raising  more  live  stock  and  more  foodstuffs  on  the  farms 
of  the  state,  thus  not  only  to  stop  the  great  outflow  of 
money  to  purchase  food  for  man  and  beast,  but  likewise 
to  maintain  the  fertility  of  the  soil.  The  year  1918,  com- 
pared with  the  years  preceding,  showed  a  greater  produc- 
tion not  only  of  cotton  but  of  grain  and  a  larger  number 
of  live  stock  on  the  farm. 

The  beginning  was  made  when  the  necessities  of  the 
situation  were  borne  home  upon  the  farmers  and  when 
their  consciousness  was  awakened  to  the  need  of  co-oper- 
ation and  community  spirit,  hitherto  so  foreign  to  their 


NORTH    CAROLINA  65 

individualistic  natures.  Nothing  is  more  difficult  to  the 
strong  individualistic  nature  than  co-operation  with 
others,  because  of  the  necessary  subordination  at  times 
of  his  own  dominant  will  and  judgment. 

Agricultural  Progress 

From  the  reports  of  the  State  Agricultural  College, 
however,  comes  the  story  of  a  steady  advance  through- 
out North  Carolina  rural  life.  It  is  the  story  of  greater 
use  of  fly  screens,  of  kitchen  pumps  and  kitchen  sinks, 
of  electric  lights  and  telephones,  of  running  water  in 
houses,  of  crowds  that  attend  demonstrations  on  home 
economics,  of  the  formation  of  farmers'  clubs,  of  boys' 
and  girls'  pig  and  calf  clubs.  It  is  in  effect  the  story  of 
the  beginning  of  the  break-up  of  that  physical  and 
mental  isolation  which  had  been  at  once  the  state's  great- 
est attribute  and  her  greatest  handicap. 

One  of  the  interesting  side-lights  of  the  increase  in 
cattle,  especially  dairy  cows,  is  the  growing  output  of 
cheese.  It  is  one  of  the  outward  and  visible  signs  of  an 
industry  taking  root,  which  makes  for  a  constant  source 
of  revenue  to  its  owners. 

Two  phases  of  agriculture,  fruit  and  garden-truck 
growing,  are  peculiarly  the  result  in  a  commercial  way 
of  the  closest  business  co-operation  among  the  growers. 
In  no  other  way  can  success  be  attained.  These  forms 
of  production  have  had  a  remarkable  development  in 
North  Carolina  in  recent  years. 

Fruits  and  Vegetables 

The  cultivation  and  supply  of  fruits  and  vegetables 
goes  along  with  the  sun  in  its  annual  northward  swing 
from  December  to  June.  The  thousands  of  carloads  of 
early  fruits  and  vegetables  that  weekly  go  northward 


66  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

from  the  South  Atlantic  seaboard  through  the  Norfolk 
gateway  to  the  great  cities  of  the  East  Atlantic  Coast 
mark  and  typify  the  far-flung  influence  which  the  growth 
in  taste,  in  wealth,  and  in  education  has  upon  the  com- 
mercial life  of  the  nation.  Highly  organized  industry 
supplies  fruits  and  vegetables  all  the  year  round,  in  re- 
sponse to  that  luxurious  and  discriminating  appetite 
which  has  ever  been  one  of  the  accompaniments  of  a 
highly  developed  civilization  and  which  in  our  own  coun- 
try has  been  diffused  to  an  extent  unknown  in  any  of 
the  great  civilizations  of  the  past,  or  in  other  lands.  Be- 
cause of  our  wide-spread  wealth  and  education,  and  our 
inherent  democracy,  these  wholesome  and  attractive 
fruits  and  vegetables  lie  within  the  province  of  the  great 
mass  of  our  people.  The  development  of  the  taste  and 
the  purchasing  power  of  the  people  at  large  make  pos- 
sible wide-spread  ramifications  of  production,  distribu- 
tion, and  transportation. 

Now  all  the  vegetables  and  all  the  fruits,  with  rare 
exceptions,  of  the  states  to  the  north  and  the  south  are 
grown  in  North  Carolina  and  in  constantly  increasing 
quantities.  The  great  coastal  plains  are  especially  fitted 
for  the  raising  of  fruits  and  vegetables,  not  only  because 
of  soil  fertility  but  because  the  climate  is  tempered  both 
as  to  heat  and  cold  by  the  great  body  of  salt  water  that 
stretches  inland  in  the  numerous  sounds  and  inlets. 
The  early  vegetables  come  on  the  market  when  those 
from  the  states  further  south  have  had  their  innings,  for 
there  are  great  railway  trunk  lines  which  quickly  and 
efficiently  carry  the  food  products  to  the  great  city  mar- 
kets both  north  and  south.  Much  of  this  production, 
especially  of  peaches  and  apples,  has  come  within  the 
last  generation  and  is  one  of  the  evidences  of  progress  in 
co-operative  work. 


NORTH    CAROLINA  67 

Co-operative  Marketing 

The  cultivation  of  the  endless  succession  of  truck' 
gardens  along  the  coastal  plains  is  an  affair  of  the  in- 
dividual. But  the  problem  of  marketing,  the  all-impor- 
tant factor,  is  a  thing  of  co-operative  effort  if  the  produce 
is  to  be  sold  in  large  volume  at  any  considerable  distance. 
It  involves  a  study  of  the  cities  that  want  the  produce; 
of  the  times  when  they  must  be  shipped  to  find  a  ready 
sale  at  remunerative  prices ;  of  the  speed,  facilities,  safety, 
and  certainty  of  transportation ;  and  of  all  the  intricacies 
of  accounting  that  make  plain  the  factors  of  costs  and 
of  selling  returns.  The  essential  knowledge  of  all  the 
elements  of  the  situation,  and  the  business  acumen  to 
make  so  delicate  and  complicated  a  business  a  successful 
venture,  are  beyond  the  ken  and  experience  of  the  aver- 
age small  garden-truck  grower.  They  call  for  an  organi- 
zation of  all  the  growers,  with  paid  officials  of  expert 
knowledge  and  much  experience.  The  same  thing  is  true 
also  of  fruit  for  commercial  purposes,  save  as  regards 
those  individual  growers  who  find  markets  near  at  hand 
to  which  delivery  of  their  products  is  easily  made. 

In  the  mountains  of  the  western  portion  of  the  state, 
for  instance,  the  means  of  communication  are  still 
largely  crude  and  primitive  and  only  as  good  roads  are 
constructed  do  the  mountaineer  farmers  find  ready  mar- 
kets for  the  products  of  their  fertile  valleys.  And  good 
roads  come  only  with  the  development  of  the  spirit  of 
co-operation. 

The  experience  of  the  North  Carolina  growers  of 
fruit  and  vegetables  for  commercial  purposes  crystal- 
lized into  the  formation  of  co-operative  associations  as 
the  sole  method  of  conducting  that  great  distributing 
business  which  is  such  a  feature  of  productive  and  com- 
mercial life  in  their  state. 


68  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

Water-Power 

It  is  in  manufacturing  and  industrial  life  that  North 
Carolina  most  illustrates  the  drift  towards  co-operative 
work.  The  state  naturally  is  without  cheap  and  abundant 
fuel,  the  basis  of  modern  manufacturing.  She  has  but 
little  coal,  for  such  deposits  as  she  has  are  still  undevel- 
oped. Nor  has  she  oil  or  gas.  Her  vast  forests  are  more 
valuable  as  lumber  than  as  firewood.  But  in  her  numer- 
ous streams,  in  their  fall  from  the  Appalachian  Moun- 
tains to  the  Atlantic,  she  has  a  source  of  power  at  last 
being  utilized  whose  value  and  efficiency  has  been  vastly 
increased  by  electricity,  especially  in  its  various  modes 
of  power  transmission.  These  water-power  possibilities 
were  early  perceived  but  in  the  ante-bellum  days  there 
was  no  serious  attempt  to  develop  them. 

Essentially  the  old  South  was  an  agricultural  country, 
cotton  being  king.  Essentially  the  negro  was  an  agri- 
cultural worker.  Neither  history,  temperament,  nor 
education,  or  rather  the  lack  of  it,  fitted  him  for  indus- 
trial life.  This  is  still  true  today,  though  in  lessened 
measure,  and  it  will  take  the  long  process  of  time  and 
education  to  alter  this  vital  fact.  Moreover  industrial 
life  is  a  disturbing  element,  socially  and  politically,  where 
it  prevails  in  extensive  measure.  It  has  always  been  the 
fact  in  all  countries  that  slavery  in  some  form  or  other 
has  been  the  accompaniment  of  agricultural  life,  and 
slavery  arid  industrial  life  are  not  compatible  terms. 

After  the  Civil  War  the  South  was  too  largely  en- 
gaged in  saving  her  soul  alive  from  the  untoward  and 
sinister  problems  which  threatened  the  very  existence  of 
the  white  race,  to  make  great  progress  in  economic  ways. 
Moreover,  as  she  was  completely  ruined  financially,  and 
her  past  economic  structure  had  fallen  into  sudden  and 
general  ruin,  she  had  to  start  over  from  the  beginning. 


NORTH    CAROLINA  69 

The  great  potential  water-power  in  her  streams  had  to 
await  the  coming  of  the  turbine  and  of  the  electric 
dynamo  for  full  fruition. 

Factories 

When  manufacturing  began  it  turned  to  those  staples 
the  raw  material  for  which  North  Carolina  produced 
within  her  own  borders  and  which  could  thus  more  eco- 
nomically be  transformed  into  finished  materials.  There 
gradually  grew  up  tobacco  factories,  lumber-mills,  plan- 
ing-mills,  and  all  manner  of  wood-working  plants,  espe- 
cially furniture  factories,  because  of  the  vast  forests 
which  covered  so  large  an  area  of  the  state.  Later,  of 
course,  there  came  plants  for  making  coopers'  supplies 
and  bottling  mineral  waters,  canneries,  brick-kilns, 
cement-mills,  potteries,  and  then  all  that  flotsam  and 
jetsam  of  small  manufacturing  plants  for  indiscriminate 
commodities. 

But  the  heart  of  the  story  of  manufacturing  in  North 
Carolina  is,  and  always  will  be,  the  story  of  the  cotton- 
mills.  That  is  the  beginning  of  the  last  chapter  in  the 
transformation  from  the  ways  and  customs  and  mental 
methods  of  the  past,  of  the  people  of  the  state,  to  those 
of  the  present  and  the  future. 

The  Cotton  Plant 

Cotton  is  essentially  the  fabric  of  civilization.  It  is 
at  once  the  most  universal,  the  most  economical,  the  most 
practicable  and  adaptable  to  many  uses  of  all  the  fibers 
for  clothing  human  beings.  Cotton  is  the  clothing  of  the 
many  but  has  other  advantages  besides,  and  its  by-prod- 
ucts have  constantly  increasing  value.  It  furnishes  the 
cheapest  of  all  garments  and  moreover,  since  the  inven- 
tion of  mercerizing,  it  enters  into  finer  and  more  expensive 


70  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

fabrics.  Its  story  is  the  history  of  many  nations,  from 
ancient  India  and  Babylon  to  our  own  times.  Its  culti- 
vation was  intimately  related  to  the  life  of  the  ante-bellum 
South ;  and  in  these  days  likewise  the  recrudescent  South 
under  new  conditions  of  agriculture  and  industrial  life 
still  finds  in  cotton  the  chief  source  of  wealth  and  pros- 
perity. 

It  is  peculiarly  a  plant  of  latitude,  its  northern  limits 
being  clearly  defined  by  the  occurrence  of  late  and  early 
frosts.  While  cultivated  successfully  in  the  tropics  it 
suffers  there  from  torrential  rains,  from  too  great  growth 
of  leaf  and  branches  at  the  expense  of  fruit,  and  from 
abundance  of  predatory  insects  bred  by  a  hot,  moist  cli- 
mate. So  our  own  South  is  the  fitting  place  for  its 
general  growth  because  of  favorable  soils  and  climate,  a 
hitherto  plentiful  supply  of  labor,  ready  means  of  trans- 
portation to  near-by  markets,  and  likewise  all  the  facilities 
for  manufacture  of  the  raw  material  into  cloth  and 
kindred  fabrics.  From  55  to  60  per  cent  of  the  world's 
supply  of  cotton  is  grown  in  our  southern  states  and 
about  60  per  cent  of  this  production  goes  abroad,  mostly 
to  Europe,  which  relies  upon  us  as  her  main  source  of 
supply. 

Cotton  Manufacture 

It  was  long  ago  obvious  that  the  true  place  for  the 
manufacture  of  cotton  was  the  states  in  which  it  was 
principally  grown.  But  there  were  difficulties,  seemingly 
insuperable,  and  progress  in  such  manufacturing  came 
slowly.  Beginnings  were  made  in  North  Carolina,  how- 
ever, as  long  ago  as  1813  when  the  first  cotton  factory 
in  the  state  was  erected  in  the  Piedmont  section  and  run 
by  water-power.  By  1860  there  were  39  mills  and  41,- 
900  active  spindles  in  the  state,  but  in  the  reconstruction 


NORTH    CAROLINA  71 

period  their  number  fell  off  sadly.  Construction  matters 
went  slowly  up  to  1880  and  then  took  on  new  life.  The 
advantages  of  being  close  to  needed  raw  material,  and 
of  cheap,  abundant,  and  dependable  water-power,  became 
so  obvious  that  many  of  the  people  of  the  state  invested 
their  savings  in  cotton-mill  manufacturing.  There  were 
seasons  when  the  manufacturing  business  was  very  pros- 
perous and  remunerative  and  this  was  a  stimulus  to 
further  growth.  At  the  present  time  there  is  much  new 
mill-building,  and  the  state  ranks  high  in  the  number  of 
its  mills,  spindles,  and  employees.  These  mills  now  con- 
sume practically  all  the  cotton  raised  in  the  state  of 
North  Carolina. 

Improved  Condition 

Recitals  such  as  this  are  common  in  many  industrial 
centers  of  our  country.  Local  pride,  very  pardonably, 
exhausts  language  and  figures  in  describing  the  prosperity 
and  attractiveness  of  the  section.  But  unless  the  indus- 
trial advance  carries  with  it  the  betterment  of  the  gen- 
eral welfare  of  the  people  it  is  not  worth  while.  In 
North  Carolina,  however,  the  growth  in  the  number  of 
mills  and  the  rise  of  an  employee  class  is  the  history  of 
a  profound,  far-reaching,  and  permanent  change  for  the 
better  in  the  social,  economic,  and  intellectual  life  of 
great  numbers  of  the  people. 

From  the  beginning  the  mills  had  their  raw  materials 
close  at  hand  and  possessed  an  abundance  of  water- 
power.  But  there  remained  the  all-important  question 
of  labor.  The  negro  was  confessedly  unavailable,  save 
in  a  limited  way.  For  there  still  persisted  in  him  the 
temperament  of  at  once  the  child  and  the  primeval  sav- 
age. Continuous,  monotonous  work,  with  consequent 
responsibility,  is  irksome  to  him  in  the  extreme.  Indeed, 


72  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

work  in  general  save  under  pleasant  conditions,  is  to  him 
a  passing  phase  of  existence  bearable  only  because  of  its 
necessity. 

Labor  Problem 

As  the  large  towns  and  cities  were  few  there  was  but 
one  resource  in  this  situation  and  that  was  found  in 
the  country  folk,  the  numerous  farmers  and  small  culti- 
vators in  the  pine  barrens  and  to  a  lesser  extent  the 
mountaineers  of  the  west  country,  who  furnished  the 
labor  for  the  mills.  There  has  been  much  unknowing 
and  foolish  talk  about  these  people,  oftenest  by  peri- 
patetic observers  from  other  sections  of  the  Union  who 
branded  them  as  "poor  white  trash"  and  "crackers." 
Some  passing  observers  have  also  given  out  partial  and 
misleading  figures  concerning  the  extent  of  the  ignorance 
and  illiteracy  prevailing  among  these  country  folk.  In 
the  main  they  were  the  simple,  sturdy  dwellers  on  the 
soil  who  had  made  the  state  what  it  was  by  their  rugged 
individuality.  There  was  undue  illiteracy  among  them 
because  of  their  mental  isolation  and  because  of  other 
things  for  which  they  were  not  responsible.  But  when 
all  had  been  said,  they  were  of  the  same  stripe  as  their 
ancestors  whose  stubborn  courage  and  endurance  broke 
the  power  of  Cornwallis  at  Cowpens  and  Kings  Moun- 
tain and  filled  the  ragged  ranks  of  Lee's  army  in  the 
last  battles  around  Richmond.  They  flocked  to  the  cot- 
ton-mills, men,  women,  and  children,  in  vast  numbers — 
probably  some  150,000  to  200,000  in  all  as  time  went  on. 
There  opened  up  to  them  the  prospect  of  better  living, 
of  more  sociability,  of  improved  financial  conditions,  of 
the  excitement  of  the  town  even  though  small,  com- 
pared to  the  dead,  drab  level  of  their  lives  on  the  small 
farm. 


NORTH    CAROLINA  73 

Social  Changes 

There  was  of  course  an  unfavorable  side  to  this. 
There  was  the  growth  of  the  city  at  the  expense  of  the 
farm,  and  the  increasing  proportion  of  urban  dwellers 
to  those  on  the  countryside.  There  was  the  inevitable 
social  and  economic  unrest  which  is  always  the  portion 
of  industrial  life,  in  contrast  with  the  conservatism  and 
clinging  to  the  ideals  of  the  past  which  animated  these 
workers  when  on  their  native  heath.  There  was  much 
child  labor,  whole  families  in  fact  working  together  in 
the  same  mill.  There  was  a  lack  of  nature's  surround- 
ings in  the  monotonous  homes  where  they  were  segregated 
in  community  villages  by  the  mill  owners.  As  against 
this  it  was  the  first  time  in  their  lives  that  they  had 
steady  jobs,  regular  hours,  and  an  assured  income.  They 
now  have  social  intercourse,  amusements,  and  the  oppor- 
tunities for  education,  all  of  which  were  largely  denied 
them  before.  There  are  schools  for  the  children  of  a 
nature  and  convenience  never  before  known  in  the 
state.  As  a  practical  proposition  the  best  thought  is 
that  child-labor  laws  to  be  really  effective  and  beneficial  in 
any  state  must  be  accompanied  by  a  compulsory  educa- 
tion statute.  Otherwise  many  of  the  children  will  be 
doomed  to  that  idleness  which  is  the  chief  incentive  to 
going  astray  alike  in  men  and  children.  There  is  much 
community  work  done  among  these  mill  workers,  but 
necessarily  of  a  kind  and  nature  at  which  their  native 
independence  does  not  take  offense.  In  all  these  matters 
the  mill  owners  voluntarily  bear  their  full  part. 

Increasing  Efficiency 

The  matter  of  greatest  moment  is  the  natural  change 
in  the  mental  attitude  of  the  workers  when  associated 
in  large  groups  and  realizing  the  necessity  and  wisdom 


74  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

of  that  cooperation  which  their  daily  work  imposes. 
From  this  material,  seemingly  unpromising  yet  inher- 
ently sound  and  wholesome,  there  is  being  bred  a  race 
of  intelligent,  and  in  time,  educated  and  efficient  mill 
workers  in  whose  hands  rests  the  coming  of  that  day 
when  through  their  skill  and  co-operative  results  the 
South  Atlantic  states  must  inevitably  become  the  cotton- 
mill  center  of  the  world. 

During  the  past  five  years  there  has  come  a  parting 
of  the  ways  in  the  story  of  North  Carolina.  And  in  the 
awakened  interest  in  better  and  more  diverse  methods 
of  farming,  in  the  community  work  throughout  the  state 
which  seeks  advancement  in  all  social  and  economic 
ways,  in  the  steady  growth  of  education,  and  in  the 
diverting  of  the  old  spirit  of  strong  and  sturdy  individu- 
alism into  the  ways  of  co-operation,  appears  the  begin- 
ning of  an  economic  development  which  will  place  the 
state  in  the  front  rank  of  the  "self-contained"  common- 
wealths of  the  Union. 


WISCONSIN 

Nature's  Limitations 

In  every  state  in  the  Union  the  unceasing  problem 
was,  and  always  will  be,  the  development  of  such 
resources  as  fortune  bestowed  upon  the  commonwealth. 
There  are  limitations  to  various  industries  in  every  phase 
of  human  endeavor,  imposed  by  climate,  soil,  or  some 
other  handicap,  which  cannot  be  overcome  in  an  econom- 
ical manner.  North  Dakota  can  no  more  raise  oranges 
commercially  than  Florida  can  produce  apples  after  the 
same  manner.  But  the  real  genius  of  the  people  con- 
sists in  perceiving  clearly  just  how  far  their  state  can 
go  in  certain  productive  ways  and  where  the  line  may 
safely  be  drawn.  This  the  people  of  Wisconsin  have 
done  in  a  remarkable  degree,  and  thereby  hangs  this 
tale.  For  the  study  of  Wisconsin  was  made  with  the 
aim  of  discovering  what  the  state  possessed  in  resources 
and  what  has  been  done  with  them,  and  then  of  forecast- 
ing the  future  of  the  state  as  a  good  hunting  ground  for 
business.  The  purpose  was  not  simply  to  discover  what 
resources  were  in  process  of  development ;  rather  to 
analyze  the  methods  which  had  been  followed  and  to 
determine  in  which  direction  the  growth  was  tending  and 
how  far  it  would  go. 

Continental  Climate 

The  topographic  features  of  Wisconsin  are  the  many 
beauties  of  plains,  hills,  and  dales,  much  rough  and 
picturesque  country,  many  rivers  with  steady  flow,  thou- 
sands of  lakes,  and  long  stretches  of  forest.  It  is  a  land 

75 


76  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

of  summer  resorts,  and  of  constant  out-door  life  in  all 
seasons  of  the  year. 

The  climate  of  the  state  does  not  appear  very  inviting 
— on  paper — so  far  as  figures  and  statistics  are  con- 
cerned. There  are  wide  variations  of  temperature,  with 
cold  winters  and  often  rather  hot  summers — what  is 
known  as  a  "continental  climate." 

The  extremes  of  temperature,  however,  are  modified 
by  the  two  great  lakes,  Michigan  and  Superior,  which 
wash  the  shores  of  eastern  and  northern  Wisconsin,  and 
which  exercise  a  profoundly  favorable  influence  upon 
the  climate  of  a  large  section  of  the  state.  The  northern 
latitude  adds  much  to  the  length  of  days  in  the  growing 
season,  a  decided  advantage  to  agriculture.  The  grow- 
ing season  is  sufficiently  long,  moreover,  for  all  the  agri- 
cultural productions  grown  in  these  latitudes — from  160 
to  170  days  in  the  southern  portion  and  100  to  120  even 
in  the  extreme  north. 

The  rainfall  is  remarkably  uniform,  the  annual  mean 
being  31  inches.  The  seasonal  distribution,  which  is 
the  important  factor,  is  especially  favorable,  as  50  per 
cent  of  the  annual  precipitation  occurs  between  May  and 
September.  This  precipitation  is  also  rendered  more 
effectual  by  the  slight  evaporation  compared  with  states 
further  south,  so  that  droughts  are  comparatively  rare. 

What  the  statistics  of  the  weather  do  not  show,  more- 
over, and  only  observation  can  disclose,  is  the  tonic  and 
inspiring  effect  of  the  climate  upon  human  energy  as  a 
constant  incentive  to  initiative  and  action. 

Soil 

The  chief  wealth-producing  factor  in  Wisconsin  is 
the  soil.  Yet  the  soil  is  not  nearly  so  rich  as  in  the  black 
lands  of  central  and  northern  Illinois,  or  in  the  alluvial 


WISCONSIN  77 

lands  of  the  Mississippi  river  southward  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Ohio.  Furthermore,  according  to  the  federal  cen- 
sus of  1910 — only  about  one-third  of  the  total  area  of 
the  state  consists  of  improved  land.  Much  of  the  surface 
is  covered  by  forest,  much  by  swamps  and  peat  bogs, 
much  by  cut-over  pine  lands,  now  grown  up  in  almost 
impenetrable  second  growth  thickets,  much  of  it  is  rough 
hilly  country  very  difficult  of  cultivation.  Yet  despite 
these  facts  the  state  stands  among  the  leading  common- 
wealths in  every  phase  of  intelligent,  progressive  agri- 
culture. The  people  of  Wisconsin  have  made  the  most 
of  their  soil  resources. 

Agricultural  College 

Much  of  the  state's  progress  in  agriculture  is  due 
to  the  far-reaching  influence  of  the  Agricultural  College 
of  the  great  State  University  which  crowns  the  heights 
above  Lake  Mendota  in  Madison.  In  this  democratic 
institution  of  learning,  practically  everything  is  taught, 
from  how  to  milk  a  cow  to  a  lucid  interpretation  of  the 
nebular  hypothesis,  and  all  with  like  thoroughness  and 
impartiality.  The  University  of  Wisconsin  has  given 
no  greater  service  to  the  people  of  this  state  than  in 
applying  the  methods  of  scientific  study  and  experimen- 
tation and  of  intelligent  business  analysis  to  agriculture, 
the  greatest  and  most  fundamentally  important  business 
in  all  the  world  and  yet  one  which  has  been  rarely 
regarded  as  a  business,  but  rather  as  a  pursuit  to  be 
learned  only  from  experience  in  the  shape  of  long,  hard, 
unthinking  apprenticeship. 

It  was  early  apparent  that  the  purpose  of  the  leaders 
of  thought  in  Wisconsin  public  life  was  to  study  first 
the  actual  facts  of  the  problem  presented,  and  to  formu- 
late the  theory  of  its  solution  on  the  basis  of  an  mtelli- 


78  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

gent  analysis  of  the  facts  as  they  existed,  without  any 
regard  whatsoever  as  to  preconceived  opinions  or  as  to 
what  bearing  tradition  and  custom  might  have  upon 
the  question. 

Experimentation 

The  university  authorities  saw  that  the  general  con- 
ception of  personal  knowledge  and  expertness  as  a  quali- 
fication for  successful  farming  is  true  enough,  and  so 
they  have  experiment  stations  throughout  the  state  where 
every  phase  of  farming  is  pursued  with  most  convincing 
illustrations  and  results.  But  far  beyond  this  they  saw 
the  need  of  scientific  experiments  and  laboratory  studies 
which  should  discover  the  fundamentals  of  cause  and 
effect.  Accordingly  they  entered  upon  a  systematic  soil 
analysis  intended  to  cover  all  the  arable  land  in  the  state, 
to  discover  not  only  the  constituents  of  the  soils  but 
also  what  they  lacked  that  might  be  supplied  by  artificial 
fertilizers,  in  order  that  each  farmer  might  know  the 
products  best  suited  to  his  farm. 

They  made  studies  of  the  life  history  of  predatory 
insects,  the  worst  enemies  of  the  farmer,  so  that  means 
might  be  found  of  destroying  them  and  preventing  their 
ravages.  They  made  countless  and  ceaseless  experi- 
ments as  to  the  nature  and  quality  of  agricultural  prod- 
ucts best  suited  to  the  soils  and  climates  of  the  state; 
for  instance,  one  variety  of  corn  differs  from  another 
variety  in  its  potential  production  per  acre  and  its  resist- 
ing powers  against  disease,  insect  enemies,  and  drought. 
They  made  ceaseless  search  throughout  the  country  for 
things  not  indigenous  to  the  state  yet  which  could  profit- 
ably be  grown  there — alfalfa,  for  instance,  is  domiciled 
in  Wisconsin  as  a  regular  product.  Then  there  went 
forth  the  new  and  startling  propaganda  that  agriculture 


WISCONSIN  79 

was  best  learned  in  school,  as  chemistry  is  taught 
and  learned,  exemplified  and  illustrated  with  constant 
accompanying  experiments.  The  university  attendance 
increased  some  2,000  per  cent  in  the  decade  1904  to 
1914,  and  the  increase  was  mostly  from  the  farms. 

Educational  Leaven 

To  teach  the  young  farmer  the  ways  of  science  in  his 
calling  was  the  first  purpose  of  the  Agricultural  College, 
to  educate  the  younger  generation  who  would  uncon- 
sciously and  as  a  matter  of  course  accept  the  modern 
method  of  farming  and  thus  form  that  little  leaven  which 
was  to  leaven  the  whole  mass.  It  was  early  apparent, 
in  homely  phrase,  that  "it  is  hard  to  teach  an  old  dog 
new  tricks."  In  other  words,  most  of  the  generation 
of  grown-up  farmers  in  the  beginning  looked  askance 
at  the  theories  and  precepts  of  the  Agricultural  College, 
regarding  them  in  the  main  as  merely  "new-fangled 
notions."  They  clung  to  the  idea  that  farming  could 
be  learned  only  by  long  experience  in  working  on  the 
farm  and  not  through  study  of  books.  The  education 
of  the  older  farmers  came  later  and  grew  more  slowly 
though  at  present  it  is  state-wide  both  in  purpose  and 
extent. 

Extension  Work 

Teaching  the  older  farmer  involved  the  considera- 
tion of  another  phase  of  education,  which  although  not 
new  in  theory  was  at  that  time  little  known  in  practice 
in  this  country.  It  required  but  little  thought  to  realize 
that  comparatively  few  of  those  who  should  be  taught 
ever  could  or  would  attend  the  university  and  the  Agri- 
cultural College,  and  that  the  only  alternative  was  to 
carry  the  teachings  of  these  institutions  to  those  who 


80  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

would  hear  in  their  own  homes.  Hence  arose  university 
extension  work,  a  thing  of  extraordinary  complexities 
and  many  heart-breaking  disappointments.  There  is  the 
lack  of  personal  touch  and  contact  between  teacher  and 
student,  the  lack  of  the  incentive  of  competition  with 
other  students  collected  in  the  same  place,  and  the  lack 
of  incentive  to  continued  work  other  than  the  individual 
will  and  determination  of  each  separate  student.  Yet 
the  progress  of  this  teaching  outside  of  the  university 
walls  goes  steadily  on,  and  now  reaches  thousands  of 
the  older  farmers  by  means  of  correspondence,  specially 
trained  lecturers  and  demonstrators  who  tour  the  state, 
and  classes  at  certain  extension  centers,  taught  by  men 
of  the  university.  All  this  has  led  to  courses  for  these 
older  men  at  the  university,  and  to  "farmers'  week" 
each  year  when  many  thousands  of  them  gather  at  the 
university  to  listen  to  lectures  and  demonstrations. 

The  definite  and  final  purpose  of  these  teachings, 
both  within  and  without  the  State  Agricultural  College, 
was  to  make  the  farmer  an  intelligent  student  of  his 
business,  a  business  which  requires  an  extent  and  variety 
of  knowledge  not  often  suspected.  Such  study  should 
enable  him  to  grow  crops  of  higher  quality  and  larger 
production  per  acre,  and  that  is  just  what  happened. 
For  in  all  the  products  of  her  farms,  Wisconsin  stands 
in  the  first  rank  of  the  states  as  to  quality  and  produc- 
tion per  acre. 

Marketing  Problems 

The  students  of  the  agricultural  situation  soon  per- 
ceived that  their  job  was  but  half  done,  for  they  were 
up  against  a  larger  and  far  more  complex  problem,  that 
is  as  old  as  agriculture  and  for  whose  solution  we  are, 
as  yet,  still  groping  in  the  dark.  It  was  easy  to  show  that 


WISCONSIN  81 

large  crops  were  usually  due  to  greater  production  per 
acre  rather  than  to  increased  acreage.  But  the  answer 
of  the  experienced  farmer  was  that  the  only  result 
apparent  to  him  in  such  cases  was  a  lower  price  for 
his  products,  and  the  receipt  by  him  of  less  money  on 
the  whole  than  if  he  had  raised  smaller  crops  at  a 
higher  price. 

The  Wisconsin  trend  of  thought  went  straight  to 
the  heart  of  the  matter.  It  saw  that  the  possibility  of 
increased  production  per  acre,  or  even  per  man,  depends 
upon  the  solution  of  two  problems:  a  competition  that 
is  world  wide,  and  some  method  of  distribution  that  will 
bring  in  closer  relation  the  price  received  by  the  farmer 
for  his  products  and  that  finally  paid  by  the  ultimate 
consumer. 

The  farmer  is  the  only  producer  in  all  the  world 
who  has  little  to  say  as  to  the  price  he  shall  receive  for 
his  products,  for  they  are  determined  for  him  by  univer- 
sal competition  and  by  his  facilities  for  marketing  what 
he  produces.  The  real  solution,  it  was  found,  lay  in 
reducing  the  cost  of  distribution  of  his  products. 

Co-operative  Organizations 

One  of  the  most  striking  evidences  of  the  peculiar 
common  sense  and  analytical  tendency  of  the  Wisconsin 
mind  is  found  in  the  methods  pursued  in  studying  this 
problem  of  distribution.  There  was  first  a  patient  and 
thorough  investigation  of  the  facts  by  first-hand  obser- 
vation, and  without  the  slightest  attempt  to  prove  a 
theory  in  advance.  Then  there  followed  the  formulation 
of  plans  which  sought  to  solve  the  problem  in  a  prac- 
ticable way,  giving  due  consideration  to  all  the  peculiari- 
ties of  the  conditions  as  they  existed.  There  was  no 
ignorant  outcry  against  the  middleman  in  general,  but 


82  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

ways  were  found  of  dispensing  with  some  species  of 
middlemen  who  had  no  cause  for  existence.  In  particu- 
lar the  establishment  of  farmers'  co-operative  organiza- 
tions made  possible  effective  marketing  arrangements 
and  cut  out  a  number  of  useless  expenses. 

There  are  now  over  2,000  co-operative  farmers' 
organizations  in  Wisconsin  and  they  are  gradually 
extending  to  every  phase  of  agricultural  life.  In  the 
main  they  do  not  attempt  to  go  to  the  consumer  direct, 
as  that  has  been  found  both  impracticable  and  uneco- 
nomical, but  distribute  their  products  through  some  form 
of  middleman.  In  handling  live  stock,  for  instance, 
they  combine  a  number  of  small  lots  from  various  farm- 
ers, in  carload  shipments,  and  thus  secure  prompter 
deliveries  and  lessened  freight  charges. 

Dairy  Production 

Now  in  all  this  Wisconsin  accomplishment,  the  mat- 
ter of  moment  was  the  enthusiasm,  definiteness,  and 
directness  of  purpose  with  which  the  leaders  of  thought 
infected  the  people  of  the  state.  Methods  which  broke 
away  from  the  influence  and  traditions  of  the  past,  and 
set  new  and  apparently  impossible  standards,  were  pro- 
mulgated with  such  clear-cut  thinking  and  determination 
that  they  became  at  once  a  conscious  part  of  the  general 
life  and  purpose  of  the  people  of  the  entire  state. 

In  nothing  was  this  constructive  spirit  more  marked 
than  in  the  establishment  of  the  great  dairy  business  in 
which  Wisconsin  is  pre-eminent  among  the  48  sister 
commonwealths.  In  the  beginning  of  things  there  was 
no  apparent  reason  why  this  should  ever  be  so.  In  the 
essential  matter  of  cheap  and  abundant  food  for  dairy 
cattle,  and  live  stock  in  general,  Wisconsin  was  not 
possessed  of  the  same  advantages  as  some  states  in  more 


WISCONSIN  83 

southern  latitudes.  Only  about  one-third  of  her  total 
surface  area  was  in  improved  land  capable  of  cultiva- 
tion. The  long,  cold  winters  and  the  consequent  presence 
of  much  snow-covering  made  care  and  feeding  of  live 
stock  necessary  during  such  periods,  and  this  is  always 
expensive.  Yet  in  spite  of  this  apparent  lack  of  advan- 
tages the  production  of  cheese  in  Wisconsin  grew  from 
79,000,000  pounds  in  1899,  to  148,000,000  pounds  in 
1909,  and  to  298,000,000  pounds  in  1918,  or  more  than 
one-half  of  all  produced  in  the  entire  United  States. 
Meanwhile  the  latest  available  statistics  indicate  that 
the  production  in  the  country  outside  of  Wisconsin  has 
decreased  instead  of  increased.  The  output  of  other 
dairy  products,  milk  and  butter,  has  grown  in  like  pro- 
portion in  the  state.  There  are  now  about  2,000,000 
dairy  cows  in  Wisconsin,  the  number  having  doubled  in 
the  past  decade,  and  they  constitute  about  8  per  cent  of 
the  total  milch  cows  in  the  entire  country.  The  value 
of  the  products  of  this  great  herd  in  1918  was  about 
$200,000,000.  There  are  about  3,500  factories  engaged 
in  making  butter  and  cheese. 

Babcock  Test 

Of  the  two  factors  in  the  dairy  production  of 
Wisconsin,  one  is  obvious  and  easily  apparent.  It  is  the 
simple  and  direct  fact  that  the  dairy  industry  has  grown 
far  more  in  Wisconsin  than  in  any  other  state  because 
it  has  largely  been  pursued  upon  a  strictly  business  and 
scientific  basis.  In  1885  there  was  invented  the  centrif- 
ugal cream-separator  which  mechanically  and  efficiently 
separated  cream  from  milk  and  thus  made  available 
both  constituents  for  various  manufacturing  and  con- 
sumption purposes.  Following  this,  in  1889  came  tne 
invention  of  the  Babcock  test  of  the  amount  of  butter 


84  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

fat  in  milk,  by  Dr.  Stephan  Moulton  Babcock  of  the  Agri- 
cultural Department  Station  of  the  University  of  Wis- 
consin. 

These  two  inventions  made  possible  for  the  first  time 
the  manufacturing  of  dairy  products  on  a  great  scale. 
Prior  to  the  invention  of  the  Babcock  test,  milk  was 
sold  to  factories  on  the  basis  of  the  volume  of  milk 
when  the  true  measure  of  the  value  of  milk  for  making 
butter  was  the  amount  of  the  butter  fat  content.  Those 
owning  herds  whose  milk  ran  high  in  butter  fat  were 
placed  at  a  serious  disadvantage  with  those  whose 
milk  ran  from  one-half  to  one-third  less  in  butter 
fat.  Moreover,  the  door  was  always  thus  left  wide 
open  for  the  unscrupulous  producer  who  watered  his 
milk  or  skimmed  off  a  portion  of  the  cream.  It  was 
impossible  to  establish  enduring  co-operative  associations 
when  these  easily  practiced  opportunities  of  fraud  ex- 
isted. The  Babcock  test  was  one  of  those  inventions, 
like  the  cotton  gin  and  the  twine  binder,  which  open 
up  unlimited  possibilities  of  expansion  to  a  hitherto  halt- 
ing and  perplexed  business.  There  was  no  thought  of 
patenting  this  invaluable  invention,  as  the  ethics  of  the 
university  demanded  that  all  of  its  inventions  and  dis- 
coveries be  the  property  of  the  public  as  a  part  of  the 
service  which  the  institution  seeks  to  render  the  people 
of  the  state. 

Following  the  Babcock  test  came  the  Hart  casein 
test  invented  in  1907  by  Professor  E.  N.  Hart,  likewise 
of  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  which  deter- 
mined the  value  of  milk  for  making  cheese. 

The  Milch  Cow 

The  further  problem  then  ensued  as  to  the  improve- 
ment of  "Sis  Cow"  as  the  unit  of  production.  The  first 


WISCONSIN  85 

requirement,  providing  food  in  sufficient  quantity  and  at 
reasonable  prices,  was  met  by  means  of  the  silo  which 
preserved  green  food  for  live  stock  through  the  winter. 
By  1918,  64,000  silos  had  been  erected  and  they  are 
increasing  at  the  rate  of  5,000  per  annum.  Experimenta- 
tion developed  the  interesting  and  very  logical  fact  that 
animals,  like  human  beings,  thrive  best  on  a  varied  diet, 
and  so  there  ensued  the  "balanced  rations"  of  different 
foods  in  varying  proportions  and  in  proper  sequence  to 
produce  the  best  results  in  milk  production. 

With  a  Babcock  tester  and  a  pair  of  scales,  it  became 
a  very  simple  process  for  the  farmer  to  test  the  value 
of  every  milch  cow  as  a  productive  unit  and  to  get  an 
accurate  estimate  of  her  value  compared  to  the  cost 
of  feeding  and  care.  Then  developed  the  confirmation 
of  the  old  adage  that  "blood  will  tell,"  as  blooded  cattle 
with  a  known  ancestry  were  the  real  milk  producers 
compared  with  the  "scrubs"  guiltless  of  high  pedigree. 
Then  was  inaugurated  a  set  program  of  breeding  from 
pure  blood  sires,  substituting  pedigreed  cows  for  the 
nondescript.  One  famous  milker  of  a  long  line  of  ances- 
tors gave  14,000  quarts  of  milk  in  a  year,  and  was  a 
better  paying  investment  than  stock  in  a  flowing  oil 
well. 

The  utmost  attention  is  given  to  such  an  investment. 
Every  care  is  used  to  preserve  the  health  of  the  herds 
and  to  stamp  out  disease.  The  industry  is  made  the  sub- 
ject not  only  of  study  but  of  teaching.  The  branch 
experiment  stations  of  the  university  carry  its  story  all 
over  the  state.  Demonstration  trains  go  about  through 
the  state  in  the  farming  region  showing  by  actual  and 
visual  examples  the  nature  and  meaning  of  the  dairy 
industry  and  how  it  can  be  intelligently  and  profitably 
pursued. 


86  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

Cut-over  Lands 

Now  the  growth  of  the  dairy  industry  was  a  prac- 
tical exemplification  of  the  age-old  principle  that  live 
stock  is  an  essential  part  of  every  farm,  for  the  presence 
of  the  great  herds  of  dairy  cows  has  been  the  prime 
factor  in  preserving  and  adding  to  the  fertility  of  a  soil 
that  threatened  to  become  exhausted  by  constant  crop- 
ping. Likewise,  it  is  now  solving  the  great  problem  of 
the  reclamation  of  the  cut-over  lands  of  the  northern 
portion  of  the  state.  Not  so  long  ago  this  section  was 
largely  covered  with  white  pines,  and  upon  its  deforesta- 
tion there  ensued  a  jungle  growth  of  tangled  brush. 
There  was,  and  is,  much  hardwood  left,  but  that  is 
going,  although  Wisconsin  still  continues  to  be  a  large 
producer  and  manufacturer  of  lumber.  When  cleared, 
however,  this  cut-over  section  is  land  of  grass  and 
clover.  So  the  dairy  now  has  followed  the  lumbermen 
northward,  and  the  cheese  and  butter  factories  are  tread- 
ing close  upon  the  heels  of  the  dairy  cow. 

But  the  settling  of  this  cut-over  land  is  far  from  easy. 
It  is  far  north  and  the  winters  are  long  and  cold.  The 
underbrush  seems  impenetrable,  and  the  stumps  of  the 
fallen  forest  trees  decorate  the  landscape  everywhere 
and  have  to  be  blown  up  with  dynamite  or  T.  N.  T.  And 
here  enters  that  second  great  factor  in  the  development 
of  Wisconsin,  the  recognition  both  by  the  state  and  by  the 
leaders  of  thought  of  the  mutual  obligation  of  patriot- 
ism between  the  people  and  the  state. 

University  Aid 

In  Wisconsin  the  conception  of  service  is  two-sided, 
and  the  part  of  the  state  is  as  clear-cut  and  effective  and 
as  definite  as  that  of  the  people.  And  in  nothing  is  this 
more  succinctly  illustrated  than  in  the  story  of  the 


WISCONSIN  87 

redemption  of  the  cut-over  lands,  in  which  the  univer- 
sity and  the  state  are  conducting  a  joint  campaign.  The 
soil  is  being  analyzed  and  tested  so  that  every  settler 
may  know  what  he  buys  and  the  agricultural  uses  to 
which  it  may  be  put.  The  university  furnishes  him 
without  charge  every  form  of  advice  and  practical  aid. 
This  extends  to  the  social  life,  the  sanitary  surround- 
ings, the  comforts  and  conveniences  of  home,  for  there 
is  full  realization  that  social  and  economic  problems  are 
inseparably  related  in  development. 

Agricultural  Creed 

This  work  with  the  cut-over  lands  is  a  part  of  the 
endless  program  that  seeks  to  develop  to  the  utmost  the 
possibilities  of  every  section  of  the  state.  This  program 
has  been  given  striking  expression  by  Dean  Russell  of 
the  College  of  Agriculture  in  the  University  of  Wis- 
consin, "Wisconsin's  Agricultural  Creed,"  portions  of 
which  are  presented  herewith: 

Better  Farming.  We  need  not  only  to  know  what  to  grow 
but  how  to  grow  it.  Better  farming  is  not  only  a  means  to 
financial  success  but  a  means  to  better  thinking  and  better  living. 

Improved  Farm  Homes.  A  contented  farm  family  depends 
much  upon  whether  it  dwells  in  a  house  or  in  a  home.  Im- 
proved farm  homes  are  not  centers  of  drudgery  and  dull  com- 
monplace living  from  which  the  boys  and  girls  will  want  to 
escape  as  soon  as  possible,  but  they  are  centers  of  contentment 
where  not  too  much  hard  work  brings  satisfaction  and  better 
standards  of  living.  We  of  Wisconsin  appreciate  that  improve- 
ments are  needed  as  much  in  the  home  as  in  the  barn  and  in  the 
field.  If  a  silo  or  milking  machine  serves  to  reduce  man's  labor 
and  yields  better  results,  so  will  running  water  in  the  kitchen, 
a  well-equipped  bathroom,  and  labor-saving  devices  in  the  laun- 
dry. .  .  . 

Fair  Prices.  The  individual  farmer  cannot  set  a  price  for 
his  products  and  say  he  will  not  sell  until  he  gets  it.  His 


88  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

returns  are  based  upon  the  world's  demands  where  his  product 
is  consumed.  Transportation  and  all  intermediate  charges  be- 
tween the  producer  and  the  general  world  market  must  first  be  de- 
ducted and  the  farmer  takes  what  is  left  for  his  labor  and  invest- 
ment. To  have  a  permanence  in  agriculture,  this  price  must 
keep  up  production.  The  journey  from  the  field  to  the  final  con- 
sumer should  be  as  direct  as  possible,  and  for  service  actually 
rendered  each  unit  throughout  the  chain  should  receive  a  return 
consistent  with  the  service  rendered.  Groups  of  farmers  can 
study  the  markets  and  the  relations  between  supply  and  demand. 
They  can  then  feed  the  market  so  as  to  keep  supply  and  demand 
balanced  throughout  the  season.  .  .  . 

Responsible  Farm  Organizations.  Men  give  the  best  service  to 
themselves  and  to  their  fellowmen  when  they  co-operate  for 
mutual  helpfulness.  Wisconsin,  already  a  leader  in  co-operative 
organizations,  must  continue  to  be  known  for  its  many  sound, 
successful,  mutually  conducted  enterprises.  The  country  can 
well  follow  the  lead  of  the  city  in  this  matter.  .  .  . 

Vitalized  Rural  School  Education.  Modern  rural  schools  have 
live  teachers  in  good  school  buildings.  The  country  school  shows 
the  health  of  the  community.  Head  work  is  rising  in  valuation 
in  the  country  and  the  best  rural  schools  are  running  along  lines 
of  broad  community  interests.  .  .  . 

Humanized  Rural  Life.  How  to  farm  is  not  all  there  is  to 
farming.  A  satisfied  rural  life  may  come  in  part  through  a 
community  effort  in  which  ideas  circulate  and  in  which  an  asso- 
ciation of  farmers  and  their  ideas  can  take  place.  Living  on 
good  terms  with  neighboring  folks  gives  health  to  the  body  and 
mind.  Man  is  at  his  best  when  he  lives  and  thinks  with  other 
people.  .  .  . 

Manufactures 

The  same  spirit  of  energy  and  thoroughness  is  found 
in  the  story  of  manufacturing.  Wisconsin  has  no  natural 
fuels  of  any  moment,  save  peat  bogs  whose  usefulness 
still  lies  in  the  future ;  she  has  no  coal,  oil,  or  gas  within 
her  borders.  Yet  in  1914  she  was  the  ninth  state  in  the 
Union  in  manufacturing  having  climbed  up  from  the 
twelfth  place  since  1870. 


WISCONSIN  89 

Her  manufacturing  embraces  all  manner  of  articles, 
and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  there  are  compara- 
tively few  metals  and  minerals  native  to  the  state.  There 
is  iron  ore  in  the  north,  especially  in  the  Gogebic  Range, 
and  zinc  and  lead  ore  in  the  southwest.  There  are  many 
mineral  waters,  much  clay,  limestone,  sandstone,  and 
granite,  and  the  most  is  made  of  them,  but  in  the  main 
the  requisite  raw  material  must  be  procured  from  other 
states. 

Public  Service 

In  Wisconsin  there  is  the  highest  expression  of  that 
spirit  of  the  public  school  system  that  the  real  purpose 
of  education  is  to  develop  intelligent  men  and  women, 
fit  to  assume  their  duties  under  a  democratic  form  of 
government.  The  story  of  citizenship,  what  the  indi- 
vidual owes  to  the  state,  finds  its  final  expression  in  the 
State  University.  In  Wisconsin,  as  in  many  other  states, 
the  State  University  has  broken  through  the  bonds  of 
custom  and  tradition,  and  is  much  more  than  a  mere 
institution  of  learning,  more  even  than  the  technical 
school  which  fits  men  and  women  to  earn  a  living  in 
their  chosen  professions;  it  is  in  fact  the  final  prepara- 
tion for  the  life  which  every  citizen  of  the  state  and 
country  must  live  if  the  state  and  country  are  to  perse- 
vere in  the  ways  of  democracy.  It  is  this  that  marks 
and  distinguishes  the  State  University  from  all  other 
forms  of  higher  education  that  have  preceded  it.  The 
one  thing  which  it  seeks  to  impress  upon  the  boys  and 
girls  within  its  portals  is  that,  as  the  state  has  done  its 
duty  by  them,  there  naturally  arises  the  reciprocal  obliga- 
tion that,  so  far  as  lies  within  them,  they  shall  make 
the  state  a  better  and  a  fitter  place  for  humanity  to 
dwell  in. 


90  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

Progressive  Laws 

In  a  nation  such  as  ours,  where  politics  and  poli- 
ticians play  so  great  a  part,  and  where  both  politics 
and  politicians  have  often  been  so  corrupt  and  self- 
seeking,  any  policy  that  aims  solely  at  the  welfare  of  the 
public  has  a  rocky  road  to  travel.  It  is  sure  to  encounter 
hostility  and  bitter  opposition  at  every  turn.  Such  a 
policy  at  times  is  certain  to  go  wrong,  and  its  advocates 
are  equally  certain  to  make  mistakes.  That  is  the 
inevitable  fate  and  experience  of  all  who  run  counter 
to  the  usual  drift  of  political  self-seeking. 

Out  of  all  this  welter  of  misrepresentation,  political 
intrigue,  and  human  selfishness  on  the  one  hand,  and 
sometimes  mistaken  enthusiasm  and  impracticable  theo- 
ries on  the  other,  there  have  emerged  a  code  of  laws 
and  a  set  of  practices  which  have  placed  Wisconsin  in 
the  front  rank  of  the  states  in  all  the  progressive  and 
beneficial  policies  of  a  commonwealth  in  relation  to  its 
people.  The  common  sense,  the  practical  utility,  the  far- 
seeing  vision,  and  the  far-reaching  beneficial  effects  of 
these  principles  and  methods,  appealed  to  the  people 
who  through  teaching  and  practical  demonstration  have 
become  openminded  to  every  plan  of  betterment  and 
education  for  the  many. 

In  the  vexed  matter  of  taxation  there  has  finally, 
through  much  study  and  experience,  been  perfected  a 
system  which,  as  taxation  goes,  is  both  just  and  equitable 
and  falls  mostly  upon  those  who  have  the  ability  to  pay. 

Commissions 

The  Railroad  Commission  held  that  the  first  duty 
of  the  railroads  and  of  all  public  utilities  lay  in  adequate 
service  to  the  public.  But  they  held  also  that  the  stock- 
holders of  public  utilities  were  entitled  to  a  fair  return 


WISCONSIN  91 

upon  their  investment.  And  these  principles,  often 
ignorantly  considered  as  conflicting,  have  been  worked 
out  both  in  protection  to  the  utilities,  and  in  better  and 
even  more  economically  rendered  service  to  the  people. 
Equally  has  the  Industrial  Commission  sought  to  har- 
monize and  render  mutual  the  relations  between  em- 
ployer and  employee,  never  as  a  special  advocate  of 
either,  but  as  the  judicial  arbiter.  The  result  has  been 
a  strict  justice  to  both  sides  which  minimizes  the  class 
strife  that  rests  mainly  on  man's  injustice  to  man. 

Scientific  Attitude 

The  observer  found  in  Wisconsin — years  ago  even — 
a  very  practical  endeavor  to  make  the  most  of  what 
nature  has  done  for  the  state  by  a  searching  analysis 
of  the  actual  facts  and  the  exercise  of  a  far-seeing  vision 
as  to  their  possibilities.  This  attitude  manifested  itself 
first  in  a  somewhat  unusual  combination  of  scientific 
study  and  plain  common  sense  in  dealing  with  every-day 
problems,  and  secondly  in  a  recognition  of  the  mutual 
obligation  of  the  state  and  the  individual. 

A  forecast  of  the  future  of  the  state  as  a  ground  for 
business  opportunities  required  then  merely  the  tracing 
out  to  their  logical  conclusion  certain  wide-spread  pro- 
gressive characteristics  and  tendencies  among  the  people, 
and  especially  among  the  leaders  of  thought.  The  story 
of  Wisconsin  was  manifestly  the  story  of  a  house 
built  upon  a  rock,  of  whose  permanence  and  continued 
improvement  there  could  be  no  question.  For  it  repre- 
sented the  conviction,  translated  into  action,  that  educa- 
tion and  intelligence  are  not  only  the  foundation  stones 
of  democracy  but  likewise  the  greatest  of  all  business 
assets. 

Nothing  more  nobly  typifies  the  spirit  which  made 


92  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

these  things  possible  than  the  story  of  the  Wisconsin 
men,  from  the  field,  from  the  workshop,  from  the  uni- 
versity, who  lay  out  in  the  darkness  in  Belleau  Wood 
awaiting  the  conflict  of  the  coming  day,  and  all  through 
the  night  sang  the  great  football  song  of  the  university, 
"On  Wisconsin." 


OHIO 

Interesting  Phenomenon 

It  is  one  of  the  peculiarities  of  communities  and 
countries  that  their  enterprise,  initiative,  and  progres- 
siveness  are  usually  in  inverse  ratio  to  their  age  and 
population.  The  common  explanation  of  this  phenome- 
non is  that  with  the  age  they  acquire  the  wisdom  which 
we  commonly  ascribe  to  human  beings  beyond  middle 
age  which  has  enabled  them  to  solve  most  of  their  eco- 
nomic and  social  problems.  It  is  assumed  that  there  is 
not  the  demand  and  reason  for  constructive  enterprise 
in  those  countries  which  have  been  long  developing  and* 
where  the  economic  problems  of  life  have  been  appar- 
ently worked  out  to  their  full  conclusion.  But  it  must 
be  said  that  these  explanations  all  beg  the  ultimate  and 
fundamental  question.  They  are  but  half-truths,  passing 
current  only  because  they  attempt,  in  a  superficial  way, 
to  give  the  reasons  for  an  interesting  phenomenon,  the 
real  cause  of  which  lies  far  beneath  the  surface. 

Worship  of  Past 

Whether  in  the  old  world  o?  our  own,  the  inherent 
difficulty  in  the  way  of  a  community's  continued  growth 
lies  in  the  encumbering  effects  of  a  past  which  discour- 
ages the  newborn  desires  and  aspirations  of  the  ambi- 
tious present.  There  is  too  much  unintelligent  reverence 
for  the  beliefs  and  opinions  of  the  past,  which  are  clothed 
in  a  mystic  and  sentimental  glamor.  Too  often  there 
is  the  same  reverence  for  the  economic  methods  of  the 
forefathers  as  for  an  ivy  grown  church,  centuries  old, 

93 


94  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

or  a  great  painting  by  an  old  master.  The  ways,  cus- 
toms, and  opinions  of  by-gone  days  are  accepted  with- 
out question  as  being  the  finished  result  of  human  wis- 
dom and  experience,  when  the  very  condition  of  con- 
tinued growth — of  life  itself — is  change.  In  such  a 
community  only  the  daring  few,  unpopular  Philistines 
as  they  usually  are,  even  so  much  as  question  existing 
things  or  perceive  that  most  of  the  idols  have  feet  of 
clay. 

The  first  requisite  of  progress  and  advancement  is 
the  doubt  that  present  conditions  are  all  they  should  be. 
There  can  be  no  desire  for  better  things  unless  there  be 
perception  of  the  weaknesses  and  failings  of  existing 
conditions.  Whenever  the  present  is  all-sufficient  to 
those  who  live  in  it,  there  is  small  hope  for  the  future. 
What  then  is  the  likelihood  of  future  business  develop- 
ment and  possibilities  in  a  state  which  has,  in  full  meas- 
ure, history,  tradition,  precedent,  a  large  population, 
and  abounding  wealth  of  every  description,  which  pre- 
cludes the  spur  of  necessity?  For  such  is  the  state 
of  Ohio. 

Will  it  run  true  to  form?  Will  its  energies  gradually 
slow  down  as  its  prosperity  increases  and  succumb  to 
the  retarding  forces  of  tradition?  Or  is  there  a  vital 
and  abiding  reason  to  make  it  a  notable  exception  to  the 
general  rule? 

Diverse  Settlers 

In  the  case  of  a  state  with  a  history  which  extends 
back  into  the  days  before  the  Revolution,  it  is  first  to 
seek  its  essential  characteristics  in  the  story  of  its  past 
and  in  the  inheritance  which  has  come  down  to  it.  The 
original  thirteen  colonies  were  as  diverse  in  racial  strains 
as  they  were  in  climate  and  topography.  For  the  first 


OHIO  95 

settlers  were  from  many  European  countries.  The 
Dutch  of  New  York,  the  Huguenots  of  South  Carolina, 
the  Scotch  Highlanders  of  North  Carolina,  the  Germans 
of  Pennsylvania,  had  as  little  in  common  as  in  their 
native  European  habitats.  There  was  even  a  difference 
between  the  two  English  branches,  the  Puritans  of  New 
England  and  the  cavaliers  of  Virginia.  To  create  a 
common  bond  of  interest  and  sympathy  among  such 
diverse  peoples  needed  over  a  century  of  dwelling  side 
by  side.  Complete  fusion  came  only  with  the  exigen- 
cies of  the  situation,  which  demanded  concerted  action 
if  their  liberties  were  to  be  preserved. 

In  the  formation  of  most  ojf  the  states  west  of  the 
Alleghanies,  the  same  trend  toward  the  predominance  of 
certain  racial  strains  prevailed  largely  in  the  beginning. 
Kentucky,  for  example,  was  settled  principally  from  Vir- 
ginia, and  Tennessee  from  North  Carolina.  Each  had  the 
peculiarities  of  its  mother  state.  But  the  original  white 
settlers  of  Ohio  came  from  all  the  states,  so  that  her 
people  always  have  been  a  composite  population,  typical 
in  many  ways  of  their  brethren  in  the  other  common- 
wealths and  accounting  for  much  of  their  present  open- 
mindedness  and  cosmopolitan  point  of  view. 

Western  Reserve 

Two  of  the  original  strains,  the  Puritans  from  Con- 
necticut and  the  descendants  of  the  cavaliers  from 
Virginia,  brought  with  them  to  Ohio  widely  varying 
types  of  democracy,  apparently  contradictory  and  con- 
flicting, yet  each  truly  representative  of  the  genuine 
American  pioneer  spirit,  which  placed  independence  of 
thought  above  all  tradition  and  inheritance.  The  north- 
ern portion  of  the  state,  as  far  east  as  Sandusky  and 
embracing  nearly  fourteen  counties,  was  settled  originally 


96  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

by  Puritans  from  Connecticut  and  was  long  known  as 
the  Western  Reserve  of  Connecticut.  In  all  the  history 
of  Ohio  the  influence  of  this  section  has  been  out  of 
all  proportion  to  the  number  of  its  inhabitants  and  the 
extent  of  its  territory.  For  the  Western  Reserve  em- 
bodies the  nature  and  spirit  of  Puritanism,  of  which 
Carlyle  has  well  said :  "Intrinsically  the  spiritual  purport 
of  it  has  become  inconceivable,  incredible  to  the  modern 
mind." 

Puritanism 

In  these  days  of  liberated  modern  thought,  we  are 
apt,  in  our  superficial  way,  to  think  of  Puritanism  only 
in  connection  with  its  austerity,  its  bigotry,  its  intolerance 
of  opposition  to  its  own  methods  of  thought  and  ways 
of  action.  We  are  too  prone  to  stress  its  dark  and 
gloomy  philosophy,  which  casts  a  blight  upon  innocent 
enjoyment  and  harmless  pleasure,  forgetting  that  all 
great  reform  movements  have  their  periods  of  decadence, 
when  the  earlier  ideals  become  smeared  and  dimmed 
by  contact  with  the  world.  For  Puritanism  arose  at  a 
time  when  it  was  most  needed  to  save  the  nation  of 
England  from  going  down  into  the  depths  of  degrada- 
tion and  decadence.  When  life  of  the  ruling  classes  was 
rotten  to  the  core,  there  came  from  below,  mainly  from 
the  middle  classes,  the  pronouncement  that  life  held 
something  more  than  ease,  indulgence,  and  the  pleasure 
of  the  passing  hour.  For  the  early  Puritans  were  deadly 
in  earnest,  as  are  all  great  idealists.  Nor  did  the  flame 
of  this  earnestness  wax  dim  in  their  American  decend- 
ants,  despite  the  extravagances  and  incrustations  which 
marred  some  of  its  later  manifestations.  Throughout 
the  history  of  Ohio,  the  spirit  of  the  people  of  the  West- 
ern Reserve,  and  of  the  entire  state  which  became  per- 


OHIO  97 

vaded  with  the  same  influence,  has  never  forsaken  that 
idealism  without  which  a  nation  must  surely  perish. 

Further  south  were  the  settlers  from  Virginia,  bring- 
ing with  them  the  creed  of  the  great  apostle  of  modern 
democracy,  Thomas  Jefferson,  a  creed  which  stands  for 
personal  liberty  and  freedom  of  thought,  and  which  is 
in  undying  opposition  to  class  privilege  and  the  tyranny 
of  might  over  right. 

Nothing  is  more  marked  in  the  history  of  Ohio  than 
the  dominance  of  these  two  immortal  schools  of  political 
thought.  Under  their  influence  the  state  has  remained 
one  of  independent  voters,  casting  their  ballots  from 
motives  of  the  merits  of  the  cause  and  not  because  of 
party  affiliations.  In  the  state  and  national  elections  of 
Ohio,  the  only  forecast  that  can  be  reasonably  made  of 
the  result  is  that  it  will  almost  inevitably  be  in  favor  of 
the  party  which  presents  the  highest  ideals  and  the 
most  progressive  policies. 

Resources 

Nature  has  bestowed  material  resources  on  Ohio  with 
a  lavish  hand.  The  climate  is,  on  the  whole,  well-ordered 
and  dependable.  The  annual  rainfall  is  usually  abun- 
dant for  all  agricultural  needs,  and  disastrous  droughts 
are  rare.  While  the  annual  range  of  temperature  is 
very  great,  it  is  far  less  serious  in  relation  to  the  crops 
than  a  similar  annual  variation  in  rainfall  would  be. 
On  this  account  there  are  not  the  wide  differences  in 
production,  which  are  the  principal  problems  in  the  agri- 
culture of  the  western  plains.  This  is  shown  in  the  fairly 
even  annual  yield  of  corn,  of  all  grains  the  one  most 
sensitive  to  too  much  rain  or  the  lack  of  it. 

The  topography  of  the  state,  notably  in  the  northern 
part,  along  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie,  is  that  of  a  great 


08  MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

plain  gently  undulating  on  the  whole  and  having  very 
few  elevations  of  any  note,  the  highest  being  in  the 
south  and  southeast  as  the  Ohio  River  is  approached. 

Farms 

Over  79  per  cent  of  the  total  land  is  improved.  The 
growing  season  covers  from  120  to  180  days,  and  the 
long  summer  days  give  an  abundance  of  sunshine. 

The  farms  are  comparatively  small  and  offer  oppor- 
tunity for  that  intensive  cultivation  and  larger  produc- 
tion per  acre  which  is  the  basis  of  all  economical  and 
efficient  agriculture.  The  farmers  of  the  state  are  noted 
for  the  care  and  intelligence  of  their  work.  Fields  are 
tile-drained,  and  farms  are  generally  well  supplied  with 
equipment  and  needed  buildings. 

Sheep  on  Farms 

Ohio  ranks  fifth  among  the  states  in  the  number  of 
live  stock  on  farms,  as  its  farmers  early  perceived  that 
no  farming  can  ever  be  efficient  in  the  highest  degree 
without  a  due  proportion  of  live  stock.  It  leads  all  the 
states  east  of  the  great  grazing  ranges  of  the  West  in  the 
number  of  sheep  on  the  farms,  usually  in  small  flocks. 
For  its  farmers  show  their  discriminating  intelligence 
and  vision  in  their  early  perception  of  the  fact  that  sheep 
were  as  essential  to  a  farm  as  any  other  kind  of  live 
stock,  and  that  only  by  this  method  of  raising  them 
could  the  problem  of  furnishing  a  sufficient  supply  of 
domestic  wool  be  solved. 

The  recognition  of  this  vital  economic  fact  came  at 
a  time  when  the  general  impression,  which  in  fact 
amounted  to  a  conviction,  prevailed  in  the  farming  com- 
munities of  the  East,  Central  West,  and  South,  that 
sheep  were  essentially  the  product  of  a  new  and  pioneer 


OHIO  99 

country,  and  that  they  could  not  be  raised  in  competition 
with  the  great  grazing  ranges  of  the  West,  Australia, 
New  Zealand,  South  Africa,  and  the  Argentine.  It  was 
overlooked  that  in  England,  where  land  is  high-priced 
and  population  dense,  small  flocks  of  sheep  upon  farms 
have  been  a  notable  feature  of  agriculture  for  many 
generations,  experience  having  demonstrated  that  sheep 
were  an  economical  and  necessary  by-product  of  exten- 
sive agriculture. 

So  the  raising  of  sheep  in  Ohio  upon  small  farms 
was  typical  of  the  mental  attitude  of  its  people,  to  whom 
custom  and  tradition  were  of  small  moment  compared 
with  the  real  facts  of  the  situation,  which  could  be  ascer- 
tained and  understood  only  by  intelligent  investigation 
and  study. 

Dairying 

Because  of  the  great  number  of  cattle  within  its 
borders,  Ohio  has  an  extensive  dairy  industry.  Now- 
adays the  dairy  business,  in  all  its  phases,  is  an  affair 
of  much  complexity,  and  requires  up-to-date  knowledge 
to  be  successfully  compassed.  It  has  been  almost  com- 
pletely transformed  from  the  old  ways  and  methods  of 
the  past,  and  the  study  of  it  constitutes  one  of  the  leading 
and  most  important  courses  at  the  state  agricultural 
colleges  of  the  country.  It  requires  a  knowledge  of 
chemistry  and  animal  husbandry,  and  dips  down  deeply 
into  the  intricate  problems  of  sanitation,  distribution, 
and  salesmanship.  The  successful  prosecution  of  the 
business  depends  not  alone  upon  the  economy  and  quality 
of  production,  but  often  equally  as  much  upon  intelli- 
gent advertising  and  general  sales  methods.  In  all  this 
Ohio  has  been  well  to  the  front  among  the  dairy-produc- 
ing states. 


loo          MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

Varied  Farming 

Diversification  is  the  distinguishing  feature  of  agri- 
culture in  the  Buckeye  State.  Not  only  are  all  the 
products  of  its  latitude  grown,  but  everything  else  that 
can  be  raised  successfully  in  its  soil  and  climate,  as  the 
farming  communities  are  usually  receptive  to  suggestions 
with  regard  to  new  products  that  come  at  all  within  the 
scope  of  their  accomplishment.  Tobacco  is  grown  largely, 
and  the  production  of  alfalfa  is  increasing.  There  is 
still  some  flax  produced  even  though  its  cultivation  has 
been  generally  abandoned  in  the  Central  West.  In  com- 
mon with  Michigan,  Ohio  early  essayed  the  cultivation 
of  sugar  beets  which  it  is  now  producing  in  quantity.  It 
is  one  of  the  largest  producers  in  the  country  of  garden 
truck  of  all  kinds,  and  ranks  high  among  its  sister  com- 
monwealths as  a  grower  of  fruits  and  nuts. 

Fruit-Growing 

Now  those  who  grow  vegetables  and  fruits  for  com- 
mercial purposes  must  know  many  things  which  the 
producers  of  agricultural  staples  need  not  concern  them- 
selves with.  They  must  be  familiar  with  some  phases 
of  meteorology,  so  as  to  provide  against  certain  weather 
contingencies.  They  must  have  a  knowledge  of  chemistry 
and  entomology,  for  only  then  can  they  hope  to  circum- 
vent the  ceaseless  attacks  of  predatory  insects.  They 
must  also  know  intimately  all  the  complex  processes  of 
marketing  and  distribution,  or  else  their  carefully  grown 
crops  perish  unsold  on  their  hands.  Successful  com- 
mercial growers  of  garden  truck  and  fruit  are  therefore 
men  of  intelligence  and  many  parts. 

The  fruit-growers  of  Ohio  belong  to  this  class.  By 
experience  and  observation  they  have  discovered  an 
interesting  meteorological  phenomenon  which  has  enabled 


OHIO 


them  to  produce  fruit  successfully,  iiotubly- peaches,  'in- 
a  latitude  where  the  last  spring  frosts  usually  make  such 
an  undertaking  a  risky  and  uncertain  performance.  The 
great  body  of  water  in  Lake  Erie  tempers  the  cold  north 
winds  blowing  over  Ohio  and  modifies  the  temperature 
for  some  distance  south.  The  farmers  have  taken  advan- 
tage of  this  to  grow  apples,  peaches,  and  grapes  in  great 
quantities  in  the  strip  of  land  along  the  lake. 

Manufactures 

Equally  diverse  are  the  state's  manufactures.  It 
has  much  coal  and  natural  gas,  and  also  coal  oil  for  fuel 
purposes.  Through  its  lake  ports  it  has  cheap  water 
transportation  for  bringing  iron  and  copper  ores  from 
the  great  mines  in  the  Lake  Superior  country.  It  has 
limestone  and  sandstone  for  building  purposes.  It  has 
large  deposits  of  clay,  and  is  the  leading  state  in  the 
manufacture  of  products  of  this  material.  It  is  only 
natural,  then,  that  its  manufactures  should  be  vast  and 
varied. 

The  list  of  the  things  Ohio  manufactures  is  as  long 
as  a  Chinese  play.  Of  the  353  classifications  of  manu- 
factures given  in  the  United  States  census,  291  were 
represented  in  Ohio  in  1914.  Of  the  great  number  of 
cities  in  the  state,  every  one  is  the  seat  of  some  forms 
of  manufacture.  Many  of  these  manufactures,  after  the 
fashion  displayed  in  New  England,  flock  together  in  one 
or  more  places.  Thus  we  have  the  iron  and  steel  products 
concentrated  in  Cleveland  and  Youngstown;  rubber 
goods,  clay  products,  and  pottery  in  Akron;  automobiles 
in  Toledo  and  Cleveland;  and  foundry  and  machine- 
shop  products  in  Canton  and  Dayton.  Many  of  the 
products  have  world-wide  reputation  for  their  merit  and 
excellence,  as  for  instance  the  pottery  products.  This 


102         MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

wide'-spread"  arid  vast  manufacturing  industry  is  prin- 
cipally responsible  for  the  phenomenal  increase  in  the 
past  decade  in  the  population  of  many  of  the  cities. 

The  output  of  lumber  and  timber  products  is  remark- 
able in  a  state  so  thickly  settled  and  so  closely  cultivated. 
For  Ohio  has  still  standing  a  great  acreage  of  hardwoods 
of  the  finest  quality— oak,  maple,  hickory,  poplar,  wal- 
nut, and  ash. 

Transportation 

The  topography  of  the  state  lends  itself  readily  to 
the  maintenance  of  numerous  systems  of  transportation 
which  form  a  network  over  the  state.  Not  only  is  there 
a  considerable  mileage  of  steam  railway  in  every  county, 
connecting  and  criss-crossing,  but  there  are  also  electric 
and  interurban  lines  which  furnish  constant  and  eco- 
nomical transportation  for  freight  and  passengers. 
Electric  lines  in  especial  have  served  as  builders  and 
feeders  for  many  of  the  large  cities  by  increasing  the 
scope  and  volume  of  their  distribution  of  commodities 
to  the  surrounding  country,  and  b>  adding  to  the  possi- 
bilities of  suburban  life  with  cheap  and  rapid  transit  to 
the  business  districts  of  the  large  cities. 

The  interurban  electric  lines  make  possible  the  exten- 
sion of  the  trade  of  the  large  distributing  center  by  the 
ease  and  quickness  with  which  it  can  send  its  products 
to  the  neighboring  country,  and  by  the  facility  with  which 
the  people  of  the  near-by  small  towns  can  shop  there 
and  take  advantage  of  the  great  variety  of  goods  it 
offers.  The  attractive  and  refreshing  life  in  the  subur- 
ban towns  is  also  made  possible  for  city  workers  by  the 
quick  and  certain  transportation  the  lines  offer  from 
the  noisy,  busy  mart  to  the  quiet,  restful  home.  Then, 
too,  the  freight  service  they  furnish  within  certain  dis- 


OHIO  103 

tance  limits  is  doing  much  to  solve  the  transportation 
problems  of  an  overburdened  and  inadequately  equipped 
steam  railroad  system. 

Canals  and  Roads 

Added  to  all  these  means  of  transportation  are  the 
waterways.  To  the  north  is  Lake  Erie,  giving  an  outlet 
eastward  through  the  Erie  Canal  to  the  seaboard,  and 
westward  through  the  Detroit  River  and  the  Upper 
Lakes  to  the  northwestern  states  and  western  Canada. 
There  is  the  Ohio  River  on  the  south,  leading  east  to 
Pennsylvania  and  south  and  west  to  all  the  Mississippi 
Valley.  Nor  must  the  canals  from  Cleveland  to  Ports- 
mouth and  Toledo  and  Cincinnati  be  forgotten,  linking 
as  they  do  the  two  great  waterways  of  the  state. 

Moreover,  the  state  has  an  abundance  of  good  roads, 
and  has  of  late  shown  the  greatest  increase  of  any  state 
in  the  Union  in  the  number  of  highways  of  hard  and 
enduring  surface.  As  a  natural  corollary  of  this,  the 
number  of  automobiles  increased  500  per  cent  from 
1913  to  1918,  and  there  is  now  one  automobile  for  every 
twelve  persons. 

Education 

In  the  vital  matter  of  education,  the  story  of  the  state 
is  of  especial  interest,  not  only  because  of  the  vast  appro- 
priations made  by  the  legislature,  but  also  because  of 
the  great  number  of  schools,  colleges,  and  universities, 
which  have  an  enrollment  of  nearly  1,000,000  scholars  in 
a  population  of  5,500,000.  From  the  earliest  beginnings, 
education  has  been  a  matter  of  general  and  wide-spread 
interest  in  Ohio,  so  that  the  percentage  of  illiteracy  is 
now  very  low  despite  the  vast  horde  of  foreigners  who 
have  been  attracted  to  the  mills  and  mines. 


104          MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

It  was  early  apparent  that  the  first  settlers  of  the 
Western  Reserve  brought  with  them  that  love  of  educa- 
tion and  high  estimate  of  its  value  which  distinguished 
their  fathers  in  Connecticut.  For  there  was  an  abiding 
conviction  in  them,  to  which  later  days  have  given  con- 
vincing proof,  that  a  democratic  form  of  government 
cannot  long  endure  without  universal  education  and  intel- 
ligence among  its  people.  Nor  did  the  impulse  towards 
education  stop  with  the  public  schools,  but  went  onward 
to  the  higher  forms,  which  in  Ohio  assumed  largely  the 
shape  of  small  colleges.  The  Puritan  intellect,  if  any- 
thing, was  disputatious,  and  wished  to  be  very  sure  of 
the  form  as  well  as  the  nature  of  its  beliefs,  notwith- 
standing that  it  existed  as  a  living  protest  against  for- 
mality and  ecclesiasticism.  Despite  its  scorn  and  aver- 
sion of  rites  and  ceremonies,  it  demanded  that  all  things 
be  done  soberly,  advisedly,  and  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord. 
To  the  Puritan  mind  it  was  essential  that  doctrines  be 
sound,  and  that  the  expression  of  them  be  along  simple, 
severe,  but  rigid  lines. 

Small  Colleges 

Inevitably,  then,  the  small  college  appealed  to  them 
because  of  its  natural  incentive  to  study  and  the  personal 
influence  of  the  teacher  upon  the  student.  The  religious 
training  and  influence  which  was  sought  to  incorporate 
in  the  curriculum  of  the  small  college  was  rather  a  matter 
of  exposition  and  argument  than  of  conversion  and 
proselytism.  So  in  later  days,  even  the  denominational 
phase  of  education  in  the  small  college  has  become 
merely  perfunctory  or  else  has  fallen  into  entire  disuse. 
But  it  served  well  its  purpose.  For  in  the  times  of 
great  national  stress,  when  problems  of  supreme  and 
infinite  moment  rent  the  country  asunder,  the  fiery  cross 


OHIO  105 

went  forth  from  the  small  colleges,  and  section  answered 
unto  section,  and  county  unto  county,  throughout  the 
state,  and  they  rallied  as  one  man,  as  they  have  always 
done,  to  the  support  of  those  principles  which  lie  so 
deeply  imbedded  in  their  consciousness.  For  there  were 
giants  in  those  days  in  education  as  in  every  other  phase 
of  life.  Men  of  dauntless  courage,  of  far-flung  vision, 
of  an  understanding  that  comprehends  all  the  essential 
matters  in  human  life.  They  were  the  types  that  come 
only  in  the  early  and  elemental  period  of  a  nation's  life, 
before  people  are  encumbered  with  all  the  fripperies  and 
follies,  the  doubts  and  despairs,  the  subtleties  and  refine- 
ments of  modern  civilization.  They  are  as  impossible 
in  our  day  as  the  recrudescence  of  a  Shakespeare,  a 
Homer,  a  Beethoven,  an  Isaiah,  or  a  Washington. 

State  Universities 

Meanwhile  there  arose  through  the  spirit  of  the  Vir- 
ginia settlers  the  desire  for  that  last  word  in  the  higher 
forms  of  democratic  education,  the  state  university, 
which  was  the  conception  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  as 
expressed  in  the  founding  of  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, the  forerunner  among  the  great  institutions  of  its 
kind.  Ohio  has  institutions  of  higher  education  to  which 
the  state  contributes.  In  the  number  of  colleges  and 
universities,  Ohio  is  second  in  the  entire  country,  being 
surpassed  only  by  Pennsylvania.  It  was  significant  of 
the  progressiveness  of  the  people  of  the  state  that  they 
were  among  the  earliest  in  the  country  to  adopt  co- 
education in  their  colleges  and  universities.  For  they 
no  longer  subscribed  to  the  cave  men  theory,  prevalent 
in  the  "good  old  days"  of  our  forebears,  that  the  cook 
book  and  the  Bible  were  sufficient  reading  for  the  "weaker 
vessels." 


106         MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

Rural  Schools 

During  the  past  decade  the  people  of  Ohio  have  grap- 
pled with  and  mastered  a  problem  which  has  confronted 
every  one  of  the  48  states,  the  rural  public  school  sys- 
tem. A  complete  survey  was  made  of  the  entire  state, 
and,  unlike  most  state  and  federal  surveys,  it  was  not 
forgotten  and  allowed  to  die  of  dry  rot.  Something 
very  definite  and  constructive  followed  from  it.  What 
was  disclosed  by  the  survey  was  something  that  has 
been  more  or  less  common  to  most  of  the  states.  The 
teachers  were  poorly  trained ;  the  method  of  instruction 
was  archaic;  and  the  equipment  for  the  schools  was 
inadequate,  especially  in  the  ways  of  health  and  sani- 
tation. 

A  thorough  reformation  followed  the  investigation. 
Wherever  possible,  schools  were  consolidated.  The 
standard  of  instruction  and  of  study  were  appreciably 
improved,  and  the  children  were  surrounded  with  every 
form  of  comfort,  convenience,  and  sanitation.  In  course 
of  time  the  school  became  to  them  a  center  of  social  and 
intellectual  life.  A  spirit  was  created  among  them  which 
caused  their  activities  and  interests  to  cluster  around 
the  school  as  the  Alma  Mater  of  their  early  days.  In 
many  of  the  counties  the  high  school  attendance  increased 
from  1914  to  1919  from  50  per  cent  to  as  high  as  100 
per  cent. 

City  Government 

One  very  practical  phase  which  education  has  as- 
sumed in  Ohio  is  the  development  of  a  high  civic  sense 
among  its  inhabitants  for  the  purpose  of  resisting  all 
attempts  at  political  exploitation.  Just  why  we  have 
national  political  parties  as  the  dominating  forces  in  our 
city  government  life  is  a  dark  and  inscrutable  mystery 


OHIO  107 

to  all  save  the  ward  politicians  and  professional  office- 
seekers,  who  make  their  living  thereby.  Some  of  the 
Ohio  cities  have  had  the  courage  to  break  the  bonds  of 
their  political  slavery  by  adopting  the  city  manager's  form 
of  government. 

The  city  of  Dayton  set  this  new  fashion,  because  of 
an  overwhelming  trouble  which  threatened  her  life  and 
standing  as  a  prosperous  and  enterprising  town.  It  is 
not  an  uncommon  happening  in  this  country  for  a  ter- 
rible calamity  to  a  city  to  be  the  real  source  of  an 
undreamed-of  splendid  future  instead  of  the  great  and 
overpowering  misfortune  which  seemed  so  imminent  at 
first.  It  was  so  in  the  great  fires  which  almost  com- 
pletely destroyed  Chicago  and  San  Francisco.  Such 
misfortunes  seem  to  arouse  all  the  energy  and  fighting 
qualities  of  the  people  and  to  incite  them  to  the  utmost 
effort.  So  Dayton,  recovering  from  a  disastrous  flood, 
evolved  a  new  and  businesslike  method  in  her  civic  life. 
It  was  simplicity  itself.  A  city  manager  was  chosen  to 
manage  a  great  corporation,  the  city  itself,  on  business 
and  not  political  lines. 

In  another  direction  Cleveland  set  the  pace  for  Ameri- 
can municipalities,  whose  governments  have  too  often 
been  notorious  for  corruption  and  inefficiency  both  at 
home  and  abroad.  For  many  years  this  city,  rich  and 
prosperous,  had  that  evil,  common  to  many  American 
cities,  of  a  house  divided  against  itself,  two  classes  mis- 
understanding and  fighting  each  other.  Out  of  this 
welter  of  conflict  and  internecine  strife  there  finally  was 
born  a  civic  pride  and  a  civic  consciousness  which  strove 
for  the  welfare  of  the  city  and  its  many  people,  along 
modern  constructive  ways.  So  Cleveland  has  apparently 
solved  the  problem  which  still  plagues  and  perplexes  less 
progressive  municipalities. 


io8         MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

Independence  of  Thought 

We  thus  come  again  to  the  final  query  as  to  the  nature 
and  mental  attitude  of  the  people  of  a  state  where  every 
industry  flourishes,  where  resources  are  having  their 
fullest  development,  and  where  wealth  and  prosperity 
seem  native  and  to  the  manner  born.  People  of  many 
industries  are  usually  as  diverse  and  many-sided  as  their 
employments.  To  this  breadth  of  vision,  bred  not  so 
much  by  physical  environment  as  by  the  variety  of  the 
work  by  which  they  earn  their  daily  bread,  the  people  of 
Ohio  have  added  a  singular  independence  and  initiative 
of  thought  which  is  a  legacy  handed  down  from  the 
sturdy  pioneers  who  made  the  state  and  whose  charac- 
teristics are  even  now  determining  its  future. 

These  traits  are  shown  in  the  wide-spread  mainte- 
nance of  every  species  of  communication ;  in  the  immense 
variety  of  manufactures;  in  the  diversification  of  agri- 
culture and  the  eager  welcome  extended  to  new  plants 
and  new  methods  of  cultivation ;  in  the  abiding  interest 
in  education  as  the  prime  factor  in  democratic  life ;  in  a 
freedom  from  political  bias,  as  evidenced  in  changing 
the  political  complexion  of  its  legislatures  and  its  rulers 
whenever  the  welfare  of  the  state  so  demands;  in  the 
exquisitely  discriminating  intelligence  shown  in  the  popu- 
lar voting  on  constitutional  amendments  which  are  care- 
fully selected  or  rejected  according  to  their  worth;  in 
the  adoption  of  the  latest  and  most  approved  methods 
of  government;  in  the  general  good  taste  and  judgment 
displayed  by  dealers  and  consumers  in  the  large  demand 
for  articles  of  the  highest  merit  and  worth,  and  the 
comparatively  small  call  for  cheap  commodities,  without 
regard  to  their  lack  of  merit;  and,  most  of  all,  in  the 
preservation  of  ideals  that  neither  time  nor  traditions, 
nor  ease,  nor  prosperity,  have  been  able  to  displace. 


OHIO  109 

There  is  always  political  independence  of  thought  and 
action.  There  is  honest  discussion  and  trial  of  new 
social  and  economic  theories,  in  a  manner  devoid  of 
fanaticism  or  undue  prejudice,  and  with  an  eye  solely  to 
the  results. 

What  with  the  overwhelming  riches  of  the  state  and 
the  trend  of  thought  among  its  people  pointing  steadily 
to  increasing  intelligence  and  discriminating  progressive- 
ness,  there  can  be  only  one  answer  to  one  question — 
Ohio  that  is  an  inexhaustible  field  for  increasing  busi- 
ness of  the  highest  type. 

Contrasts  of  Civilization 

Ohio,  in  fact,  presents  an  interesting  example  of  the 
wide  difference  that  exists  between  the  civilization  of 
this  country  and  the  civilizations  of  the  old  world,  where, 
as  in  France  for  example,  the  ancient  inheritance  and 
tradition  rest  to  a  large  extent  as  a  burden  on  enter- 
prise and  progressiveness.  In  the  beginning,  Ohio  also 
had  a  history  and  a  tradition  which  in  the  natural  order 
of  things  tended  to  still  her  enterprise  and  prevent  the 
free  and  natural  expression  of  her  vigorous  and  indi- 
vidual originality.  But  the  people  of  the  state  broke 
away  from  the  things  of  the  past  which  stood  in  the  way 
of  progress,  and  wrought  for  themselves  new  methods 
and  new  ways  in  accordance  with  their  natural  and 
abiding  spirit  of  advancement  and  enterprise,  and  the 
pioneer  spirit  of  individuality  has  come  down  to  them 
untrammeled  and  untouched,  although  it  has  perforce 
sought  modern  forms  of  expression. 


TEXAS 

Impartial  Study 

An  essential  of  impartial  and  unprejudiced  study  of 
any  state  is  that  the  observer  go  to  the  scene  with  a  mind 
not  only  receptive  to  new  impressions,  but  likewise  free 
from  preconceived  opinions  so  far  as  such  a  mental  atti- 
tude is  humanly  possible.  Otherwise  there  will  be  a 
tendency,  often  unconscious,  to  color  and  fit  facts  to  the 
conformation  of  some  theory,  instead  of  following  the 
true  procedure  of  acquiring  facts  first  and  deducing 
the  theory  afterwards.  This  is  a  danger  of  which  every 
experienced  observer  is  acutely  aware. 

First-Hand  Observation 

Paradoxically  enough,  the  surest  way  to  avoid  such 
pitfalls  is  not  to  know  too  much  about  the  place  you 
visit.  If  it  were  possible,  indeed,  it  would  be  better  to 
know  nothing  whatever  in  advance  about  the  state  you 
are  to  study,  but  to  acquire  all  your  knowledge  during 
the  course  of  your  survey.  As  this  is  not  practicable, 
the  next  best  thing  is  to  limit  your  knowledge  to  some 
elemental  points  regarding  the  history,  geography,  and 
climate  of  the  land  you  are  to  study.  You  will  not  then 
go  through  the  often  painful  process  of  readjusting  prac- 
tically all  the  opinions  you  formed  in  advance.  The  right 
way  beyond  question  is  to  start  with  the  study  of  the 
phenomena  themselves  and  not  with  ideas  gathered  sec- 
ond-hand from  books  or  from  other  travelers.  The  best 
report  is  a  poor  substitute  for  first-hand  study  and  obser- 
vation. Moreover,  no  statistics  or  figures  can  give  you 

no 


TEXAS  ill 

even  an  approach  to  a  true  conception  of  any  great  fact. 
This  is  why  mere  statisticians  are  such  unsafe  and  un- 
reliable guides,  because  they  are  usually  unacquainted 
with  the  facts  which  produced  the  statistic^,. 

A  Vital  Truth 

Of  all  the  48  states  none  more  warrants  the  wisdom 
of  "unpreparedness,"  as  just  indicated,  than  the  state 
of  Texas.  The  numerous  stories  concerning  it,  many  of 
them  humorous  jibes,  convey  an  unfavorable  impres- 
sion which  it  is  hard  to  resist  when  you  do  not  know 
the  country  from  personal  observation.  Moreover,  these 
impressions  are  apt  to  be  confirmed  by  those  casual 
travelers  who  have  seen  certain  portions  of  Texas  under- 
passing  unfavorable  conditions  of  weather  or  circum- 
stance, which  they  conclude  to  be  permanently  char- 
acteristic of  the  state  and  its  people.  This  is  one  of  the 
vital  truths  which  every  observer  has  to  learn  if  he  is 
ever  to  be  worthy  of  his  job:  that  peoples,  climate,  and 
all  economic  and  social  phenomena  are  seldom  what 
they  seem  on  first  acquaintance.  The  true  situation  re- 
veals itself  only  upon  closer  study,  and  the  modifications 
and  amendments  which  develop  in  the  course  of  the  study 
alter  fundamentally  even  if  they  do  not  dissipate  first 
conclusions. 

Sympathetic  Viewpoint 

This  is  particularly  true  of  all  communities  of  direct 
and  elemental  culture,  such  as  North  Carolina,  Kansas, 
and  Texas,  whose  people  are  not  concerned  about  im- 
pressing travelers  by  being  other  than  natural,  and  whose 
vivid  state  pride  takes  for  granted  that  the  state  and 
its  qualifications  speak  for  themselves  in  no  uncertain 
tones.  Only  by  being  perceptive  of  such  hidden  truths 


112          MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

can  the  observer  perceive  the  deep  underlying  facts  of 
the  situation.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  real  enjoyment 
of  a  great  football  game  between  two  college  teams  unless 
your  sympathies  are  so  wrapped  up  in  one  of  the  teams 
that  its  success  or  defeat  is  almost  a  matter  of  life  and 
death  with  you.  Unless  you  feel  about  it  as  does  the 
undergraduate,  it  is  a  mere  spectacle  and  not  two  hours 
of  delicious  agony.  By  the  same  token,  the  understand- 
ing of  the  spirit  of  the  people  of  any  state  comes  only 
from  comprehension  and  sympathy  with  their  point  of 
view,  so  that  you  join  in  the  feeling  of  state  pride  be- 
cause you  understand  the  forces  which  give  it  birth. 

True  Idealism 

Every  state  has  certain  vital  factors  which  largely 
influence  its  development.  It  may  be  the  innate  com- 
mon sense  and  idealism  of  Kansas,  or  the  trained  open- 
mindedness  of  Wisconsin,  or  the  rugged  individualism  of 
North  Carolina.  The  real  problem  for  the  observer  is 
to  discover  these  compelling  characteristics  so  that  they 
may  disentangle  for  him  the  otherwise  baffling  skein  of 
the  state  and  its  history. 

The  people  of  Texas  have  none  of  those  encum- 
brances of  the  past  which  make  so  strongly  for  moss- 
covered  conservatism,  lack  of  initiative,  and  the  blighting 
of  true  idealism.  We  are  prone  to  think  of  ideals  as 
being  the  creation  of  tradition  and  inheritance,  when 
in  truth  such  ideals  are  mere  lifeless  legends  which  seek 
to  perpetuate  antiquated  methods  of  thought  and  action 
in  an  age  to  which  they  are  unfitted  and  in  which  they 
are  utterly  out  of  place.  Not  only  is  it  true  that  the 
newer  regions  of  our  own  country,  Canada,  and  Aus- 
tralia are  those  where  true  ideals  of  progress  and  genuine 
democracy  find  their  most  fitting  home  and  abiding  place, 


TEXAS  113 

but  even  in  composite  America  the  newer  states  set  the 
pace  in  matters  of  initiative  and  progress. 

Composite  State 

The  early  life  of  Texas  was  that  of  pioneer  Ameri- 
cans fighting  for  life  not  only  against  the  savage  wild 
beasts  and  the  equally  savage  Indian,  but  against  an 
even  worse  foe,  the  Mexican  oppressor.  The  red-blooded 
fighting  man  was  a  concrete  and  every-day  existence  and 
not  a  mere  figure  of  speech.  The  story  of  the  Alamo 
was  the  story  of  Texas  grit  and  courage.  Texas  is  the 
only  one  of  the  states  that  had  existence — for  about  a 
decade — as  a  free  and  independent  republic. 

The  people  came  from  everywhere,  though  largely 
from  the  South.  But  the  leaven  of  environment  was  not 
to  be  denied,  and  it  is  today  the  only  distinctly  com- 
posite western-southern  state  in  the  Union.  The  peo- 
ple, although  composite  like  the  state,  differ  somewhat 
according  to  the  section  of  the  state  in  which  they  dwell. 
The  inhabitants  of  the  wooded  sections  of  the  east  and 
southeast  are  much  like  the  people  of  northern  Louisiana 
and  southern  Arkansas,  while  the  dwellers  in  northern 
and  central  Texas  are  more  western  and  less  southern. 
In  the  south  central  section  and  southeast  to  the  Rio 
Grande  there  is  still  another  type,  easy  to  recognize  but 
difficult  to  describe.  The  west  Texan  is  sui  generis — 
very  western — just  a  trifle  tinged  with  the  southern 
flavor,  but  mostly  just  Texan. 

Pioneer  Spirit 

Agriculture  was  and  is  the  principal  industry.  Free 
from  the  influence  of  great  cities  and  congested  manu- 
facturing centers,  there  has  been  preserved  that  pioneer 
spirit  which  gave  Texas  its  birth  as  a  free  and  inde- 


II4          MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

pendent  country.  This  American  spirit  found  expression 
in  the  live-stock  production  which  has  always  been  one 
of  the  great  industries  of  Texas.  The  earlier  times — 
the  "free  grass"  period,  when  fenced-in  ranches  and 
barbed  wire  enclosures  were  unknown — were  the  days 
of  the  romance  of  the  cowboys.  They  were  hard  riders 
and  brave  men — rough  but  manly — whose  life  lay  always 
close  to  nature  on  the  vast  sweeping  prairies.  Their 
code  of  ethics,  simple  but  effective,  had  place  only  for 
the  obvious  manly  virtues  of  courage  and  endurance, 
with  scant  allowance  for  dishonesty  and  cowardice  in 
any  form.  They  had  likewise  that  abiding  sense  of  jus- 
tice so  inherent  in  the  elemental  man. 

Granger  Movement 

This  same  independent  spirit  found  later  expression 
in  the  granger  movement  which  swept  over  the  state  from 
1873  to  1895,  an  effort  on  the  part  of  the  farmers  to  try 
conclusions  with  certain  economic  laws  which  seemed  to 
them  unjust  and  oppressive.  There  resulted  much  leg- 
islation against  the  "predatory  plutocrat"  and  much 
regulation  of  railroads,  some  of  it  hostile  rather  than 
reformatory  because  of  practices  of  exploitation  not  un- 
known in  those  days.  The  things  which  were  merely 
hostile,  however,  have  passed  away,  while  needed  regu- 
lations remained  for  the  general  good. 

As  time  went  on,  the  feeling  against  the  railroads  and 
against  the  power  of  wealth  gave  way  to  the  realization 
that  an  essential  for  the  development  of  the  state  was 
the  use  of  outside  capital  under  regulation  that  gave  it 
protection  and  yet  curbed  excesses.  For  there  was  a 
state  pride  that  took  into  account  the  possibilities  of  the 
many  native  opportunities  of  the  land. 

In  later  years  this  same  spirit  of  independent  thought 


TEXAS  115 

and  action  took  a  more  constructive  direction.  The  com- 
mission form  of  government  in  cities  is  a  salient  ex- 
ample. Commission  government  originated  in  Galves- 
ton  in  1900,  after  the  flood  which  almost  destroyed  the 
city,  and  was  an  entire  departure  from  all  previous 
forms  of  municipal  rule. 

Varied  Topography 

Texas  is  a  country  of  great  variety,  and  of  differ- 
ences so  marked  as  to  suggest  the  inclusion  of  several 
states  within  its  wide  borders.  In  the  east  and  the  south- 
east is  the  forested  area,  mostly  plain,  and  much  like 
the  neighboring  regions  of  southern  Arkansas  and 
northern  Louisiana.  There  is  some  rough  country  in  the 
southern  central  portion  and  again  westward  along  the 
Rio  Grande  until  genuine  mountains  are  reached  in  the 
extreme  southwest.  There  is  much  mesquit  growth 
trending  northwesterly  into  chaparral  thickets.  Else- 
where the  country  is  a  great  plain,  sloping  upward  from 
the  Rio  Grande  and  coastal  plains  to  the  upland  prairies 
of  west  Texas  and  the  Panhandle,  the  latter  being  the 
Llano  Estacado,  or  Staked  Plains  of  our  boyhood  maps. 
The  state  has  some  natural  boundaries,  the  Red  River  on 
the  north  and  the  Sabine  on  the  east,  as  well  as  the  Rio 
Grande  on  the  south — its  tortuous  course  of  over  1,100 
miles  marking  the  Mexican  line.  In  the  main,  how- 
ever, it  is  a  man-made  state,  rather  than  a  geographical 
entity. 

Broad  Extent 

The  things  which  most  impress  you  in  your  travels 
are  its  enormous  size  and  the  endless  sweep  of  its  plains. 
It  is  the  largest  state  in  the  Union,  some  265,000  square 
miles  in  area.  It  is  six  times  as  large  as  Pennsylvania, 


ii6          MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

larger  than  all  the  Atlantic  States  from  Maine  to  Vir- 
ginia inclusive,  while  all  the  former  German  Empire 
could  have  been  accommodated  within  its  borders.  From 
northeast  to  southwest  or  from  northwest  to  southeast 
is  as  long  a  railroad  trip  as  from  St.  Louis  to  Boston. 
The  whole  thought  of  the  Texan  is  imbued  with  the  big- 
ness of  his  state,  and  is  reflected  in  his  ambition  for  her 
accomplishment  and  the  great  things  he  confidently  ex- 
pects of  her  future. 

There  are  strong  contrasts  of  forest  and  plain,  of 
fertile  land  and  desert.  Yet  there  is  much  that  on  first 
acquaintance  strikes  you  as  being  monotonous.  You 
go  for  hundreds  of  miles  over  endless  wind-swept  plains 
before  you  feel  their  charm  and  begin  to  understand 
their  effect  upon  the  people  who  dwell  upon  them.  Then 
there  grows  upon  you  a  feeling  of  the  depth  and  remote- 
ness of  space,  and  the  plains  imbue  you  with  that  sense 
of  freedom — mental  and  physical — which  you  experi- 
ence on  the  boundless  ocean. 

Precipitation 

The  climate  is  one  of  the  paradoxes  of  the  country. 
Like  that  of  all  the  states  of  the  great  plains,  it  is  a 
force  to  be  reckoned  with  in  the  days  of  its  wrath.  The 
annual  rainfall  in  the  eastern  portion  averages  about  55 
inches  annually,  but  decreases  progressively  westward 
and  southward  until  in  the  extreme  southwest  it  falls  to 
5  inches,  or  the  condition  of  the  hopeless  desert.  The 
rainfall  is  most  uncertain,  because  the  areas  of  baro- 
metric low  pressure — or  "lows" — which  are  the  rain 
producers  and  which  form  east  of  the  Sierras,  usually 
skirt  only  the  upper  portions  of  the  Panhandle  in  their 
eastward  flight.  Moreover,  many  of  the  "lows"  which 
form  in  the  Pacific  lose  most  of  their  moisture  in  cross- 


TEXAS  117 

ing  the  Sierras  and  the  Rockies.  So  that  the  "lows" 
which  bring  rains  to  Texas  usually  originate  in  the 
extreme  southwest,  or  else  come  down  from  the  north- 
west under  the  pressure  of  some  great  "high"  behind 
them.  Hence  the  rainfall  is  an  uncertain  quantity,  not 
only  by  years  but  by  seasons. 

Hurricanes 

At  times,  sometimes  at  long  intervals,  the  state  is 
visited  by  a  West  Indian  hurricane  which  is  always 
accompanied  by  a  deluge  of  rain  and  which  leaves  ruin 
in  its  track.  Its  appearance  in  Texas  is  the  result  of  a 
curious  meteorological  phenomenon.  The  West  Indian 
hurricanes  come  up  from  the  Caribbean  Sea  in  a  north- 
westerly direction  until  they  reach  the  Florida  Peninsula, 
when  they  usually  rebound  and  go  northeast  along  the 
Atlantic  Coast.  At  times,  however,  the  North  Atlantic 
is  covered  by  a  bank  of  "high  pressure,"  which  deflects 
the  hurricane  westward  across  the  Gulf  and  well  into 
Texas,  when  it  turns  northeast  and  follows  the  usual 
track  of  the  southwest  "lows"  across  the  continent.  One 
of  these  hurricanes  completely  destroyed  the  city  of 
Indianola  on  the  Texas  coast.  Another  nearly  destroyed 
Galveston  in  1900,  and  another  in  recent  years  inflicted 
great  damage  upon  Corpus  Christi. 

Cotton  and  Grain 

The  story  of  agriculture  in  Texas,  as  elsewhere,  is 
largely  the  story  of  the  weather.  In  common  with  all 
the  states  of  the  great  plains,  the  dry  years  flock  to- 
gether in  groups,  and  the  wet  years  similarly.  Winter 
is  usually  the  driest  season,  while  the  wet  springs,  fol- 
lowed by  dry  summers,  which  prevail  over  central  Texas, 
make  that  region  peculiarly  favorable  for  raising  cotton. 


Ii8         MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

The  snows  of  winter  in  the  Panhandle  have  helped  to 
make  that  northern  part  of  the  state  a  great  wheat- 
growing  region.  A  favorable  spring  means  a  large  yield, 
as  wheat  is  harvested  before  the  great  heats  of  sum- 
mer. Throughout  the  state,  planting  is  early  in  order 
that  crops  may  mature  before  the  hot  dry  summer  is  at 
its  height. 

Cotton  and  corn  demand  entirely  different  weather  in 
the  summer  for  favorable  yields.  Cotton  needs  a  mod- 
erately wet  May  and  comparatively  dry  June  and  July. 
This  latter  requirement  has  been  much  accentuated  since 
the  appearance  of  the  boll  weevil  which  thrives  best  in 
wet  weather — a  wet  June  and  July  indeed  means  such  a 
pest  of  these  insects  as  will  practically  destroy  the  cotton 
crop.  Corn,  on  the  contrary,  requires  a  sufficiency  of 
rain  in  June  and  July,  especially  at  the  critical  stage  of 
tasseling.  So  it  comes  about  that  a  large  crop  of  cotton 
and  a  large  crop  of  corn  rarely  occur  in  the  same 
year. 

Weather  Contrasts 

The  droughts,  which  will  always  be  in  a  portion  of 
the  state,  except  in  the  eastern  portion,  constitute  the 
difficulty  in  the  life  of  the  people,  agricultural,  economic, 
and  domestic.  In  some  portions  of  western  and  southern 
Texas  these  droughts  seem  endless,  lasting  in  some  cases 
for  two  or  three  years.  They  are  destructive  of  vege- 
table life  and  animal  life,  completely  ruining  the  crops 
and  causing  untold  losses  among  the  herds  on  the  great 
grazing  ranges.  In  some  sections  of  West  Texas,  in 
the  long  and  bitter  drought  just  prior  to  1919,  all  the 
domestic  animals  on  the  farms  perished,  for  there  was 
neither  food  nor  water  to  be  had  for  them,  and  even  wild 
animals,  coyotes  and  jack  rabbits  completely  deserted 


TEXAS  119 

these  regions.  Yet  twelve  months  later,  after  a  season 
of  almost  ceaseless  rain,  the  entire  plains  were  a  vast 
carpet  of  green,  alive  with  herds  and  animal  life,  and 
also  with  passing  wild  fowl  on  all  the  numerous  small 
lakes. 

So  familiar  are  these  startling  and  unexpected  con- 
trasts of  weather  that  the  average  Texan  has  a  plentiful 
lack  of  faith  in  the  accuracy  and  dependability  of  any 
long-distance  weather  forecasts.  His  view  is  mistaken, 
however.  An  intelligent  study  of  the  weather  records 
indicates  very  definitely  that  the  weather  in  Texas  closely 
reproduces  the  meteorological  phenomena  of  all  the  great 
plains,  only  in  a  somewhat  more  accentuated  form,  and 
that  it  is  entirely  possible  to  make  long-distance  weather 
forecasts  with  such  approximate  accuracy  as  to  be  of 
material  assistance  to  agriculture  and  commercial  life  in 
ordering  their  actions. 

Winds 

Texas  is  a  land  of  sunshine,  which  adds  much  to  the 
potentiality  of  growing  crops,  but  likewise  to  the  natural 
dryness  of  the  land.  The  ceaseless  winds  increase  the 
dryness,  although  they  do  much  to  promote  the  health  of 
the  people.  Indirectly,  the  winds  do  much  to  temper  the 
summer  heats;  the  nights,  especially,  are  cool.  Sun 
strokes,  by  the  way,  are  practically  unknown  in  Texas. 
The  spring  and  fall  are  everywhere  delightful,  and  so  are 
the  winters,  especially  in  the  southern  portion.  There 
are,  however,  sudden  cold  winds  in  the  winter,  "northers," 
which  bring  with  them  precipitous  drops  in  temperature, 
and  which  have  a  frigidity  out  of  all  proportion  to  the 
temperatures  they  bring.  They  have  an  unobstructed 
sweep  from  the  far-away  Rockies  and  across  the  long 
stretching  plains. 


120          MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

Irrigation 

There  is  underground  water  in  most  of  the  west  and 
south  of  the  state,  and  it  is  pumped  for  moderate  irriga- 
tion by  endless  windmills.  Especially  is  this  true  of 
the  Panhandle,  where  there  is  an  unending  procession 
of  windmills.  On  every  grazing  range,  however  arid, 
they  make  a  green  oasis  round  the  dwelling.  There  is 
much  irrigation  in  scattered  sections — along  the  Pecos, 
the  Concho,  and  the  Colorado  Rivers  in  the  southwest, 
the  San  Saba  River  and  the  great  Medina  Dam  in  the 
south,  the  Sabine  River  in  the  east,  and  the  Rio  Grande 
in  the  southeast.  Altogether  there  are  about  5,000,000 
acres  potentially  irrigable,  mostly  from  streams,  although 
many  sections  are  supplied  with  artesian  wells.  The 
Brownsville  and  Rio  Grande  irrigated  fields  are  of  com- 
paratively recent  date,  and  are  devoted  to  truck  garden- 
ing, which  has  had  a  checkered  existence  because  of  the 
difficulties  and  expense  in  distributing  to  distant  markets. 

Farming 

Texas  has  the  greatest  number  of  farms  and  of  farm 
acres  of  any  of  the  states,  and  about  24  per  cent  of  the 
farms  are  improved.  It  usually  leads  the  states,  or  else 
is  near  the  top,  in  the  value  of  farm  property  and  farm 
products.  It  raises  most  of  the  products  of  the  temperate 
zones  and  many  of  those  of  the  sub-tropical.  Sugar  cane 
production  in  the  Rio  Grande  district  approximates  more 
nearly  than  elsewhere  in  this  country  to  the  climate 
possibilities  of  the  West  India  Islands.  The  state  is  a 
heavy  shipper  of  watermelons  and  peaches,  and  also  of 
onions,  cabbages,  and  tomatoes. 

Owing  to  the  comparative  lack  of  mountains,  and  of 
forests,  save  in  the  east,  most  of  the  land  is  available 
either  for  agriculture  or  live  stock.  There  are  also  about 


TEXAS  121 

1,500,000  acres  of  swamps  on  the  southeast  coast,  which 
can  be  drained.  The  west  and  southwest  have  the  most 
extensive  cattle  ranges  in  the  Union,  where  are  found 
about  one-tenth  of  all  the  cattle  in  the  country,  many 
more  goats — mohair — than  in  any  other  state,  and  great 
numbers  of  sheep  and  hogs.  In  times  of  drought,  sheep 
and  goats  pull  through  when  cattle  succumb  to  the  lack 
of  food  and  water. 

Old  Delusion 

In  the  west  and  southwest  are  the  debatable  lands, 
where  the  land  is  used  for  agriculture  or  for  grazing 
according  as  the  season  is  wet  or  dry.  In  the  years  when 
rainfall  fails  and  not  even  dry  farming  can  produce  crops, 
the  tide  of  disappointed  "home  seekers"  ebbs  eastward, 
and  cattle  graze  upon  the  abandoned  fields.  When  the 
rains  come  again  in  their  relentless  cycle,  the  army  of 
farmers  once  more  invade  the  ranges  and  settle  down  to 
agriculture,  forgetful  of  all  the  years  of  past  failures, 
and  comforting  themselves  with  that  age-old  delusion 
that  the  climate  is  changing  and  this  time  for  good.  This 
human  comedy — or  tragedy — repeats  itself,  generation 
after  generation,  but  the  tide  of  farmland  rises  a  little 
higher  each  time  and  does  not  recede  as  far  as  in  the 
preceding  ebbing.  Slowly  man  gets  a  firm  grip  upon 
the  desert,  and  outstays  and  often  outguesses  nature. 

There  is  increasing  production  of  drought-resisting 
plants — kafir  corn,  milo  maize  and  Sudan  grass.  There 
are  more  sunken  wells  for  moderate  irrigation  for  live- 
stock feed.  But  beyond  the  western  edge  of  the  conflict 
there  is  still  the  desert  which  can  never  be  brought  under 
agriculture  and  which  for  all  time  will  serve  only  the  pur- 
pose of  cattle  grazing.  Texas  was  primarily  a  cattle 
country  with  live  stock  as  its  greatest  industry. 


122         MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

Cotton  Production 

As  the  state  was  first  settled  principally  by  southern 
planters,  cotton  became  the  leading  and  almost  the  one 
crop.  The  land  is  peculiarly  fitted  for  this  plant  because 
of  the  spring  which  usually  is  sufficiently  moist,  and  the 
dry  summers  which  follow.  There  is  much  fertile  soil, 
especially  in  the  "black  lands"  of  the  norther  section, 
and  in  the  alluvial  deposits  along  the  river  bottoms.  So 
in  time  the  state  produced  from  25  to  30  per  cent  of  all 
the  cotton  grown  in  the  country,  and  looked  forward  to 
the  day  when  it  would  grow  enough  for  all  the  domestic 
needs  of  the  entire  Union.  Then  came  the  boll  weevil, 
the  consequent  bitter  disappointment — almost  despair — 
and  the  slow  recovery  through  the  ways  of  diversifica- 
tion. The  boll  weevil  is  still  there,  but  the  fear  of  it  is 
largely  gone,  and  the  old  dream  of  Texas  as  the  great 
cotton-producing  section  of  the  country  and  of  all  the 
world  has  returned  in  full  force. 

Varied  Crops 

Diversification,  however,  has  come  to  stay,  for  early 
in  the  fight  against  the  boll  weevil  the  numerous  organi- 
zations of  growers  of  all  products  met  with  the  federal 
Department  of  Agriculture  and  the  State  Agricultural 
College  to  plan  an  intelligent  campaign  of  diversification 
and  of  cultural  methods  of  conflict  with  the  insect  enemy. 
So  Texas  is  growing  more  grain  and  foodstuff.  In  1919 
she  was  the  third  state  in  the  production  of  corn.  She  is 
growing  peanuts  in  great  quantities  and  erecting  mills  to 
extract  their  oil.  She  is  raising  rice,  alfalfa,  soy  beans, 
and  small  grains,  often  above  her  own  needs. 

Equally  has  the  lesson  of  intelligence  been  carried 
into  cattle  raising.  Better  breeds  have  been  produced, 
Hereford  and  Angus  replacing  the  old  long-horns  which 


TEXAS  123 

are  now  almost  extinct.  The  blooded  beef  cattle  have 
justified  their  existence  by  being  as  good  "rustlers"  as 
the  scrub  long-horn  and  far  better  meat  animals. 

Lumbering 

Texas  stands  high  among  the  states  in  lumber  pro- 
duction— the  principal  forests  being  in  the  east  and  in 
the  mesquit  thickets  of  south  Texas.  Cypress,  tupelo, 
palmetto,  and  hickory  are  found  in  the  swamps  and  low- 
lands of  the  east  and  southeast,  and  oaks,  gum,  sycamore, 
and  much  yellow  pine  on  the  higher  lands  and  prairies. 
There  is  an  intelligent  attempt  to  establish  a  forestry 
policy  not  only  for  retention  and  replacement,  but  like- 
wise to  inaugurate  tree  planting  upon  the  endless  sweep- 
ing plains. 

Manufacturing 

Originally  there  was  no  reason  for  manufacturing 
on  any  large  scale,  since  raw  material,  other  than  lumber 
and  live  stock,  was  largely  absent.  There  were,  how- 
ever, mills  for  cotton,  cottonseed,  and  rice;  there  were 
numerous  lumber  mills  and  establishments  for  finishing 
building  stones;  and  packing-house  plants.  Moreover, 
the  northern  section  of  the  state  became  a  great  center 
of  saddlery  and  harness-making,  and  there  have  followed 
many  miscellaneous  manufacturing  activities.  There 
are  flour  mills  for  grinding  the  home-grown  wheat,  while 
naval  stores  are  among  the  important  productions. 

Oil 

Mineral  deposits  are  not  very  plentiful  on  the  whole, 
though  there  is  some  iron  ore  in  east  and  central  Texas, 
some  sulphur,  some  little  silver,  and  much  quicksilver. 
There  is  also  some  coal  and  lignite  for  fuel. 


124         MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

Of  late  years  the  wonderful  discoveries  of  coal  oil 
have  solved  the  fuel  problem  and  added  enormously  to 
the  wealth  and  productive  capacity  of  the  state.  It  has 
been  known  for  over  fifty  years  that  there  was  oil  in 
Texas,  and  not  so  many  years  ago  the  great  flowing 
wells  in  the  southeast — the  Sour  Lake  and  Beaumont 
and  Spindle  Top  districts — were  the  wonders  of  their 
time.  They  are  still  large  producers,  but  within  the  past 
decade  and  especially  the  last  five  years  the  scene  of 
activity  and  production  has  shifted  to  the  northern  and 
western  portion  of  the  state.  The  greatest  oil-producing 
field  in  the  world  today,  and  one  whose  productivity 
grows  steadily  as  new  "pools"  are  found  and  new  wells 
drilled,  is  an  area  in  north  central  and  west  Texas  em- 
braced in  a  rectangle  about  200  miles  east  and  west,  and 
270  miles  north  and  south,  lying  directly  west  of  Fort 
Worth. 

Altogether  the  various  oil  fields  of  Texas  are  at  this 
writing  producing  about  300,000  barrels  of  oil  daily  and 
the  output  grows  steadily.  There  is  also  much  natural 
gas  with  the  oil,  and  consequently  another  valuable  and 
efficient  fuel  is  added  to  the  possibilities  of  industrial  life. 

Fuel  Consumption 

The  illuminating  value  of  coal  oil  is  fast  waning 
because  of  the  superior  cleanliness  and  efficiency  of  natu- 
ral gas  and  electricity.  This  too  despite  the  cheapness 
of  kerosene,  as  the  illuminating  oil  is  often  called.  But 
the  fuel  uses  of  coal  oil,  superior  in  many  cases  to  coal, 
are  only  now  being  recognized.  The  problem  today  is 
where  and  how  to  obtain  sufficient  oil  to  meet  the  steadily 
growing  demand  for  fuel  and  other  purposes.  Yet  from 
the  days  of  the  great  Pennsylvania  strikes  in  the  '6o's, 
there  has  never  been  a  time  when  the  demand  was  not 


TEXAS  125 

balanced  by  the  discovery  of  a  new  source  of  supply. 
In  fact,  the  only  workable  theory  of  the  uninterrupted 
continuance  of  industrial  life,  because  of  its  ever-growing 
demands  for  fuel  and  raw  material,  is  the  answer  of 
experience  that  something  will  always  turn  up  in  the  nick 
of  time. 

Oil  Boom 

It  was  a  trying  period  for  west  Texas  only  a  few 
years  ago  when  the  first  discoveries  in  the  oil  field  were 
made.  The  entire  western  section  of  the  state  was  in 
distress  and  almost  in  despair.  Almost  three  years  of 
unending  drought  accompanied  by  fierce  heats  had  de- 
stroyed all  vegetable  life,  burned  up  the  crops,  wiped  out 
vast  herds  of  live  stock,  and  thoroughly  discouraged  the 
people.  All  who  could  get  away  trekked  east  and  north, 
for  they  had  hung  on  by  their  eyelids  till  all  hope  of  a 
crop  and  of  rain  had  been  abandoned. 

Then  came  the  great  and  astounding  discoveries  of 
oil,  and  the  Dead  Sea  ashes  of  disappointment  turned 
into  the  realization  of  sudden  and  incredible  wealth. 
Wherever  oil  was,  there  likewise  was  a  riot  of  prosperity 
and  of  spending.  Aladdin's  lamp  and  its  sudden  cre- 
ations were  small  matters  by  comparison.  Men  grew 
enormously  rich  overnight  when  the  drills  struck  oil. 
Speculation  was  rife.  Burnt-up  acres  that  previously 
could  not  be  given  away  brought  fabulous  prices  for 
leases  for  oil  possibilities.  Moreover,  drilling  and  pros- 
pecting mean  much  expenditure  and  the  demand  for 
many  commodities.  The  thousands  who  flocked  to  the 
new  Eldorado  needed  food  and  raiment  and  a  place  to 
lay  their  heads.  Business  of  every  sort  was  very  good. 
Little  hamlets  of  a  few  hundred  people  grew  in  a  twelve- 
month to  cities  of  25,000  inhabitants. 


126          MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

Pioneer  Settlements 

It  is  a  curious  and  interesting  fact  that  oil  and  gold- 
mining  crazes  seem  often  to  bring  out  suddenly  in  men 
a  reversion  to  original  type.  All  the  veneer  of  civiliza- 
tion drops  away — as  in  war — and  leaves  only  the  ele- 
mental man.  He  is  not  so  far  different  from  the  civilized 
man,  but  his  real  traits  are  no  longer  concealed.  Possibly 
the  dearth  of  women  in  the  first  rough  settlements  has 
much  to  do  with  it,  for  the  nature  and  ways  of  woman 
are  ever  the  best  gauge  of  our  economic  and  social  life. 

Often,  however,  these  findings  of  sudden  wealth 
underground  are  merely  the  prelude  to  the  development 
of  other  things  more  permanent  and  enduring.  It  was  so 
in  California  and  in  Alaska,  and  it  seems  a  safe  fore- 
cast that  it  will  be  so  in  Texas,  except  in  the  rare  desert 
sections  where  nothing  but  stock  grazing  seems  possible 
as  a  permanent  business,  until  water  in  sufficient  quan- 
tity is  found  near-by. 

Agricultural  Improvements 

In  the  matter  of  education,  Texas  is  far  to  the  front 
in  the  amount  of  money  spent  upon  her  children.  For 
there  has  been  wide-spread  growth  in  the  sentiment  for 
more  and  better  schools  in  the  past  score  of  years.  The 
State  University  and  the  Agricultural  and  Mechanical 
College  are  missionaries  of  higher  and  more  general 
education. 

Teaching  the  methods  of  intelligent  agriculture  is 
peculiarly  fitting  in  a  country  where  climatic  problems 
are  so  perplexing  and  formidable.  And  the  results  of 
such  teaching  manifest  themselves  in  the  steadily  grow- 
ing cultivation,  in  that  wide-spread  region  where  the  rain- 
fall is  scanty,  of  drought-resisting  plants — kafir  corn,  milo 
maize,  feterita,  Sudan  grass — which  hold  on  grimly 


TEXAS  127 

through  days  of  rainless  heat,  when  Indian  corn  withers 
and  dies. 

Much  thought  and  study  have  been  given  also  by  the 
farmers  to  the  larger  problems  of  production  and  dis- 
tribution of  agricultural  products — and  particularly  to 
the  possibilities  of  co-operative  societies.  The  native  in- 
dependence of  Texas  spirit  did  not  at  first  take  kindly 
to  working  in  double  harness  with  the  other  fellow.  But 
there  was  no  other  way  out,  and  today  these  organiza- 
tions are  marketing  products  with  a  dispatch  and  an 
economy  far  beyond  the  powers  and  possibilities  of  the 
average  individual  grower. 

Education 

Throughout  the  state  there  is  a  fast  increasing  under- 
standing and  appreciation  of  that  more  intangible  but 
equally  vital  form  of  education  in  which  to  the  study 
of  material  things  is  added  the  cultivation  of  a  trained 
and  disciplined  mind.  The  best  sign  is  the  general  dis- 
satisfaction with  things  as  they  are  in  educational  mat- 
ters and  the  burning  desire  for  things  as  they  should  be. 
There  is  a  demand  for  better  rural  school  facilities — 
more  complete  equipment;  larger  pay  that  shall  com- 
mand more  efficient  teachers ;  and  longer  school  terms. 
The  story  of  education  in  Texas  is  the  recital  not  merely 
of  wide-spread  and  growing  interest  but  also  of  willing- 
ness to  pay  the  price.  The  percentage  of  illiteracy  is  not 
large,  and  such  as  exists  is  due  principally  to  the  presence 
of  many  adult  Mexicans  and  negroes,  for  the  children  of 
both  races  take  kindly  and  readily  to  the  three  R's. 

Local  Spirit 

The  dominant  and  pronounced  factor  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  state  is  easily,  seen  to  be  a  state  pride  which 


128          MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

has  been  always  in  evidence  in  every  stage  of  the  history 
of  the  commonwealth.  To  one  who  knows  Texas  the 
manifestations  of  this  state  pride  are  unmistakable,  yet 
it  is  just  here  that  the  superficial  observer,  or  he  who 
comes  with  preconceived  opinions,  is  most  liable  to  go 
entirely  wrong.  Such  an  observer  questions  both  the 
fact  and  the  basis  of  any  such  wide-spread  local  spirit, 
especially  if  he  visits  the  state  in  some  of  her  unfavor- 
able and  unprepossessing  moods — in  the  days,  perhaps, 
of  summer  heats  and  prolonged  drought,  or  when  the 
plague  of  insects  is  great,  or  when  crops  have  failed  and 
the  farming  and  mercantile  interests  seem  alike  close  to 
the  ragged  edge  of  disaster,  and  the  disillusioned  home- 
seeker  has  turned  his  weary  face  eastward  from  the 
land  of  his  bitter  disappointment.  Or  the  stranger  may 
marvel  that  the  dwellers  on  the  endless  plains  do  not 
become  deathly  weary  of  the  ever-receding  horizon  and 
the  winds  that  cease  not  day  nor  night.  Or  he  may  pity- 
ingly wonder  at  the  lonely  existence  on  the  remote  ranch 
in  the  arid  lands  where  the  only  green  spot  in  the  blister- 
ing sun  is  the  ranch  grounds  by  the  driven  well.  State 
pride,  he  reasons,  built  on  such  foundations  must  be 
either  blind  infatuation,  or  else  the  spirit  which  whistles 
to  keep  up  its  courage. 

Territorial  Vastness 

But  the  observer  who  looks  into  the  heart  of  things 
with  the  sympathy  that  illuminates  and  comprehends  the 
realities  of  human  life  finds  plenty  of  basis  for  the 
Texan's  love  of  his  state.  For  one  thing  there  is  the 
charm  of  the  desert,  a  charm  as  old  as  human  nature, 
and  still  as  compelling  as  in  the  days  when  the  first  Ish- 
maelite  went  out  from  the  home  of  his  fathers  to  dwell 
in  the  waste  of  rocks  and  sand.  To  many  a  man  today, 


TEXAS  129 

as  in  every  age  of  the  past,  the  city  is  merely  a  stifling 
place  of  conventionality  and  artifice,  of  mannikins  parad- 
ing in  the  guise  of  human  beings. 

There  is  the  realizing  sense  of  the  vastness  of  the 
wind-swept  prairies,  and  of  mental  freedom  and  far- 
flung  vision  that  cannot  brook  material  bounds.  From 
the  beginning  the  sense  of  the  size  and  vastness  of  the 
state  fired  the  imagination  of  the  people  as  to  the  future 
of  their  commonwealth.  The  magnitude  of  natural  phe- 
nomena and  natural  scenery  impress  us  far  more  than 
their  beauty — that  is  why  we  expect  great  achievements 
from  great  countries  rather  than  from  smaller  ones. 
The  image  of  the  union  of  far-flung  states  stretching 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  or  that  other  image  of 
the  possessions  of  England  on  which  the  sun  never  sets, 
carries  with  it  the  imagination  of  great  characteristics. 
This  feeling  lies  at  the  bottom  of  Texas  state  pride. 
There  goes  along  with  it  the  pride  of  independence  and 
the  conscious  strength  that  is  captain  of  its  soul,  and  suffi- 
cient unto  itself. 

Spirit  of  Democracy 

The  spirit  of  the  Texans  is  essentially  the  spirit  of 
democracy.  In  the  past,  as  peculiarly  an  agricultural 
people,  out  of  close  touch  with  modern  industrialism, 
they  took  umbrage  at  some  of  the  ways  of  railroads  and 
industrial  corporations,  and  their  feeling  against  privi- 
lege and  power  expressed  itself  in  vehement  denuncia- 
tion and  in  legislative  enactments  which  were  sometimes 
fantastic  in  intent  and  method.  This  suspicion  of  indus-* 
trial  life  passed  away  as  the  population  grew,  and  isolated 
communities  were  brought  into  closer  touch  with  the 
remainder  of  the  state  through  easier  communication. 
But  the  spirit  of  democracy  has  remained. 


130         MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

There  is  still  strong,  besides,  in  the  people  of  the 
state  the  spirit  of  combat  which  from  the  beginning 
fought  for  its  existence — against  ignorant  and  tyrannical 
Mexico,  and  always  against  the  vicissitudes  of  a  climate 
that  at  times  is  hostile  and  destroying. 

So  there  has  evolved  a  rough  and  ready  democracy. 
For  the  people  of  Texas  are  a  wholesome  and  husky  lot. 
They  are  strong  in  their  likes  and  dislikes,  as  are  all 
elemental  natures.  They  are  equally  sure  of  themselves 
and  their  future.  And  of  this  future,  economic  and  so- 
cial, there  can  be  no  doubt.  For  out  of  the  turmoil  of 
the  past  they  have  emerged  with  an  abiding  determined 
purpose,  and  have  set  their  faces  like  flint  in  the  ways  of 
advancement  and  progress. 


COLORADO 

An  Americanization  of  the  World 

Prior  to  the  Great  War  there  was  a  much  exploited 
theory  as  to  the  wisdom  of  the  Old  World's  peoples, 
because  of  the  vast  ages  of  history  and  experience  which 
have  been  their  portion.  To  those  who  held  this  theory, 
the  ideas,  hopes,  and  aspirations  of  the  New  Worlds, 
the  two  Americas  and  Australia,  were  as  the  mere  day 
dreams  of  children.  Yet  it  became  evident  to  close  ob- 
servers even  before  the  war,  that  there  was  in  progress 
an  Americanization  of  the  world,  and  that  in  fact  the 
only  escape  from  degeneracy  and  destruction  for  most 
of  the  civilizations  of  the  Old  World  lay  in  casting  aside 
utterly  the  burdens  of  traditional  ways  of  thought,  and 
aligning  themselves  with  the  ideas,  hopes,  and  beliefs  of 
the  earnest  and  robust  democracies  of  the  New  Worlds. 

"Wisdom  of  the  Ages" 

The  Great  War  dealt  the  final  blow  to  that  delusion 
of  the  greater  wisdom  of  older  nations.  It  taught  us, 
what  many  on  this  side  of  the  water  had  long  held,  that 
in  economic  life  much  of  Europe's  vaunted  superior 
knowledge  was  an  empty  tradition.  When  financial  stress 
came  the  "sacred  beliefs"  were  idols  with  feet  of  clay. 
And  to  no  one  was  this  more  apparent  than  to  that  hard- 
headed,  common-sense  American  "doughboy,"  who  saw 
the  Old  World  with  her  naked  soul  stripped  bare  in  the 
depth  of  her  tribulation. 

We  could  have  known  all  this  years  ago  by  the  mere 
exercise  of  intelligent  inductive  analogy,  for  nations  are 


132         MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

like  human  beings,  and  in  both  there  is  a  period  beyond 
which  the  wisdom  and  experience  of  age  loses  all  its 
potency  and  becomes  mere  obstruction.  The  "wisdom 
of  the  ages"  has  overstayed  its  time.  It  has  reached 
that  stage  when  the  ceaseless  conflict  and  struggle  for 
existence,  which  is  the  inalienable  portion  of  humanity, 
has  caused  it  to  lose  all  hope  and  sink  into  the  apathy 
of  profound  despair.  Its  state  of  mind  is  well  exempli- 
fied by  our  current  phrase,  "What's  the  use?"  Why 
should  humanity  forever  struggle  against  relentless  fate, 
which  is  no  respecter  of  persons  and  takes  tragic  delight 
in  confounding  all  our  plans,  and  frustrating  all  our 
hopes  and  ambitions  ?  Why  should  we  add  to  the  tragedy 
of  life  by  striving  for  those  impossible  things  which  only 
turn  to  the  Dead  Sea  apples  of  dust  and  ashes  and  dis- 
appointment in  our  mouths? 

Under  such  conditions  and  with  such  a  point  of  view, 
life  dwindles  to  mere  struggle  for  existence,  with  such 
passing  pleasure  as  circumstances  may  permit.  In  na- 
tions as  in  individuals,  the  spirit  of  initiative,  of  unwill- 
ingness to  accept  unquestioned  the  decrees  of  fate,  and 
of  determination  to  try  conclusions  with  all  the  hostile 
forces  of  nature,  must  be  sought  in  the  imagination  and 
courage  of  youth  and  not  in  the  wisdom  and  apathy 
of  old  age. 

Basis  of  Weil-Being 

The  American  spirit,  as  exemplified  in  the  history  of 
the  different  states,  is  the  antithesis  of  this  antiquated 
thought.  Through  long  struggle  for  our  place  in  the 
sun,  first  with  savage  Indians  and  wild  beasts,  and  later 
with  all  the  hostile  forces  of  nature,  there  was  devel- 
oped that  spirit  of  initiative  and  enterprise,  because  of 
the  incentive  of  opportunity  for  intelligent  self-interest, 


COLORADO  133 

which  seeks  to  test  all  opportunity  to  the  uttermost.  It 
has  inherently  and  primarily  been  an  economic  develop- 
ment, so  that  we  have  utterly  set  aside  that  Old  World 
snobbery  of  the  lesser  importance  in  social  and  political 
life  of  the  "tradesman,"  as  compared  with  the  man  of 
aristocratic  lineage.  For  in  these  latter  days  we  have 
demonstrated  the  wide  embracing  importance  of  eco- 
nomic life,  in  that  it  is  the  basis  of  all  else  in  our  national 
well-being.  But  we  have  learned  that  economic  progress 
depends  ultimately  upon  the  spread  of  education  and 
intelligence  and  upon  the  general  welfare  of  the  many. 
Paradoxically  enough,  it  remained  for  one  form  of  this 
American  spirit  to  display  its  greatest  difference  with 
the  old  world  trend  of  thought  in  the  story  of  the  moun- 
tain states,  of  which  Colorado  is  a  fitting  type. 

Mountaineers 

Mountain  populations  in  all  parts  of  the  world  have 
been  essentially  conservative  in  thought  and  custom,  and 
strongly  imbued  with  the  ways  and  modes  of  the  past. 
They  have  been  often  the  descendants  of  original  peo- 
ples or  tribes  who  were  forced  from  the  plains  to  the 
heights  as  a  refuge  from  powerful  invaders  they  were 
unable  to  resist.  In  their  fastnesses  they  treasured  and 
preserved  the  customs  and  traditions  of  their  forebears 
as  something  sacred.  Because  of  lack  of  means  of  com- 
munication they  developed  strong  individualism,  some- 
times modified  by  the  feeling  and  cult  of  the  clan  on 
account  of  the  necessity  of  the  individual  for  protection 
in  their  fierce  and  incessant  tribal  feuds. 

Education  was  rare  because  it  can  never  be  local 
save  in  a  halting  and  ineffective  manner,  and  can  only 
have  general  diffusion  when  made  the  business  of  the 
governing  power  whether  state  or  nation.  Like  most 


134         MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

elemental  peoples,  the  mountaineers  were  extremely 
superstitious  because  of  daily  contact  with  nature  in  her 
savage  and  impressive  moods.  Yet  along  with  this  pro- 
vincialism and  circumscribed  mental  horizon,  there  went 
great  endurance  and  much  courage.  Save  with  local 
peculiarities  and  modifications,  such  have  always  been 
the  characteristics  of  long-time  dwellers  in  the  moun- 
tains in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

Gold  Mining 

It  remained  for  the  mountain  states  of  the  West  to 
produce  a  new  and  distinct  type  of  dwellers  on  the 
heights,  strikingly  expressive  of  American  initiative  and 
progress.  Those  who  first  came  to  the  mountains  of 
Colorado  had  but  one  thought — to  wring  from  the  rocks 
and  crags  their  buried  treasures  of  gold  and  silver.  They 
were  men  with  no  burden  of  the  past  resting  upon  them, 
they  were  soldiers  of  fortune  seeking  new  fields  of  ad- 
venture. They  were  affected  by  the  spirit  of  the  moun- 
tains far  differently  from  those  to  whom  the  Everlasting 
Hills  had  been  a  refuge  from  the  oppressor.  For  the 
history  of  Colorado,  as  that  of  California,  commences 
with  the  discovery  of  gold.  In  1858  the  first  gold  was 
panned  from  the  sands  of  the  South  Platte  River,  not 
far  from  the  present  site  of  Denver.  For  the  next  quar- 
ter of  a  century  the  state  was  largely  a  mining  camp. 
Those  were  the  days  when  the  canvas-covered  prairie 
schooners  of  the  gold  seekers  were  known  by  their  signs 
of  "Pike's  Peak  or  bust,"  and  the  final  clause  was  often 
the  fate  of  many. 

Other  Minerals 

There  are  few  industries  which  have  the  inherent 
vicissitudes  and  dangers  of  mining.  Yet  the  risks  are 


COLORADO  135 

often  compensated  for  by  unexpected  and  vast  successes. 
So  it  was  in  Colorado  from  the  beginning.  The  great 
mining  camps — Cripple  Creek,  Creede,  Leadville,  and 
their  kind — ran  the  gamut  of  all  the  varying  changes  of 
fortune.  When  one  deposit  decreased,  new  fields  were 
discovered,  or  great  finds  of  new  metals  were  unearthed. 
The  state  was  always  close  to  the  front  in  the  produc- 
tion of  gold  and  silver — her  principal  rivals  being  Mon- 
tana, California,  and  Nevada.  The  production  of  silver 
suffered  a  severe  slump  during  the  free  silver  agitation 
of  the  early  nineties,  and  for  many  years  the  output 
trended  steadily  downward.  Meanwhile  gold  produc- 
tion held  its  own  because  of  great  improvements  in 
mining  methods. 

Later  on  there  were,  and  still  are,  great  outputs  of 
lead,  copper,  zinc,  tungsten,  radium,  and  vanadium.  Coal 
became  an  important  production,  and  so  did  petroleum. 
Then  were  seen  great  possibilities  in  oil-bearing  shale. 
There  were  likewise  developed  great  quarries  of  build- 
ing stones  and  clays  and  cement  materials.  The  success 
of  mining  in  the  early  sixties,  and  the  consequent  increase 
in  population,  practically  "put  Colorado  on  the  map," 
first  as  a  separate  territory — for  originally  she  had  been 
a  part  of  Kansas — and  later,  in  1876,  as  a  state. 

Successive  Discoveries 

Mining  as  a  permanent  industry  and  source  of  reve- 
nue and  employment  to  the  people  of  any  locality  or 
state  is  at  best  an  uncertain  quantity.  It  is  true  that 
there  are  copper,  silver,  and  coal  mines  in  various  coun- 
tries of  the  world  which  have  been  operated  for  cen- 
turies and  which  are  still  producing.  But  there  are 
numberless  instances,  on  the  other  hand,  of  mines  once 
richly  productive  which  are  completely  "played  out." 


136         MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

There  are  "pockets"  which  play  out,  fissure  veins  which 
encounter  a  "horse"  or  a  "fault,"  and  placer  mines 
which  become  exhausted,  and  the  once  thriving  country, 
dependent  upon  their  output,  relapses  into  uninhabited 
desert  wastes. 

But  the  story  of  mining  in  Colorado  is  that  of  a  con- 
tinuous performance.  When  one  camp  or  one  field  has 
decreased  in  output,  another  new  discovery  has  more 
than  made  up  the  deficit,  or  else  some  other  metal  takes 
the  place  of  one  that  was  once  productive.  Zinc  mining 
is  a  case  in  point.  It  is  a  development  of  less  than  a  score 
of  years,  but  now  the  value  of  this  output  is  second  only 
to  gold  and  much  greater  than  that  of  silver.  The  value 
of  silver  production  which  in  1892  was  $23,000,000,  fell 
to  $3,500,000  in  1915,  while  the  yield  of  zinc  rose  from 
$2,500,000  in  1902  to  $18,000,000  in  1915.  Meanwhile 
the  value  of  the  gold  mined  fluctuated  annually  between 
$18,000,000  and  $28,000,000  for  a  score  of  years.  There 
is  no  present  sign  of  exhaustion  in  the  mining  possibili- 
ties of  the  state,  and  the  likelihood  is  for  an  indefinite 
continuance  and  expansion  along  the  new  lines. 

Mining  Uncertainties 

Meanwhile  the  people  of  the  state,  like  the  steam- 
ship in  Kipling's  tale,  at  last  "found  themselves."  Among 
the  many  and  various  influences  which  crystallized  their 
thoughts,  ways,  and  ideals  into  a  definite  creed  and  pol- 
icy, the  mining  influence  has  been  apparently  dominant. 
But  just  in  what  way  the  influence  of  mining  has 
operated  is  not  at  first  easy  to  recognize,  because  of  the 
paradoxes  which  distinguish  and  accentuate  it. 

Mining  is  lived  largely  underground  and  among  most 
unattractive  surroundings.  Mining  towns  in  the  main 
are  not  engaging  or  picturesque  in  appearance.  More- 


COLORADO  137 

over,  the  miner,  the  elemental  man,  engaged  in  hazard- 
ous occupation,  has  usually  the  strong  class  consciousness 
which  responds  readily  to  organization.  So  it  is  not 
strange  that  mining  is  marked  at  times  by  bitter  indus- 
trial strife  between  employer  and  employee.  The  uncer- 
tainty of  employment,  because  of  the  constant  shutdowns 
or  suspensions  of  work,  are  most  trying  to  all  concerned. 
Not  only  the  workers,  but  all  dependent  upon  them, 
directly  and  indirectly,  suffer  the  demoralizing  effects  of 
those  uncertainties.  The  entire  economic  life  of  the 
mining  town  and  camp  hangs  upon  the  prosperity  and 
continued  operation  of  the  mine.  When  the  mine  closes 
down,  disintegration  and  dispersion  of  the  population  in- 
evitably ensue,  because  the  certainty  and  stability  of  life 
and  existence  no  longer  remain. 

Railroad  Building 

But  the  influence  of  mining  upon  the  thought  of  the 
state  was  largely  that  of  incitement  to  greater  efforts 
and  to  further  development  both  direct  and  incidental. 
For  mines  are  of  no  value  without  means  of  communica- 
tion and  transportation  to  bring  the  ores  to  market.  It 
was  small  value  to  discover  rich  ore  fields  unless  rail- 
roads were  near  at  hand  or  could  be  brought  within 
needed  distance.  Hence  came  the  enterprise,  expenditure, 
and  skill  which  tunneled  mountains,  climbed  the  highest 
passes,  and  ran  railroads  and  wagon  highways  through 
the  deepest  canons. 

Building  roads,  whether  for  steam  or  ordinary  vehi- 
cles, was  a  gigantic  or  costly  task  in  the  mining  districts, 
which  were  practically  all  situated  in  the  mountains. 
The  engineering  feats  involved  in  such  construction 
were  the  marvels  of  the  day,  and  still  remain  as  monu- 
ments to  the  skill,  ingenuity,  and  resourcefulness  of  the 


138         MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

engineers.  Those  who  have  been  over  Marshall's  Pass 
or  through  the  Royal  Gorge  and  Black  Canon  on  the 
railroads,  or  have  ridden  in  the  old-fashioned  coach  from 
.Ouray  to  Red  Mountain  along  the  Uncompahgre  Canon, 
have  evidence  of  the  enterprise  and  initiative  which 
came  as  the  result  of  the  mining  spirit  for  exploitation 
and  development  in  the  Colorado  mountains. 

The  Rockies 

Mining  led  to  the  development  of  the  peculiarly 
strong  and  hearty  state  pride  of  the  people  of  Colorado. 
Two  other  influences  aided:  one  of  them,  the  influx  of 
summer  tourists;  the  other,  the  abiding  influence  of  the 
mountains,  plains,  and  the  desert.  And  to  understand 
these  influences  there  must  be  some  knowledge  and  con- 
ception of  the  topography  of  the  state. 

Colorado  is  one  of  the  largest  states  of  the  Union, 
ranking  seventh  in  size— about  twelve  times  as  large  as 
Massachusetts,  and  nearly  twice  as  large  as  Iowa.  The 
eastern  two-fifths  of  the  state  is  a  continuation  of  the 
great  plains  of  Kansas,  Nebraska,  and  Oklahoma,  with 
the  land  rising  gradually  from  the  state  lines  westward 
to  the  foothills.  Immediately  beyond,  the  towering 
Rockies  rise  abruptly  through  the  timber  line  and  up  to 
the  eternal  snows.  There  are  over  forty  peaks,  which 
are  close  to  the  greatest  heights  in  the  United  States. 
The  state  has  the  highest  mean  altitude  of  any  of  the 
states.  The  main  range  of  the  Rockies  runs  north  and 
south  through  the  central  part  of  the  state,  with  numer- 
ous ranges  and  spurs  that  cover  more  than  half  the  state. 

The  Divide 

The  Continental  Divide,  or  Watershed,  follows 
closely  the  trend  of  the  main  range.  On  the  east  of 


COLORADO  139 

this  mighty  barrier,  the  headwaters  of  the  Arkansas 
begin  their  long  and  tortuous  journey  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  Not  far  away,  on  the  west  of  the  Divide,  rise 
the  streams  which  make  up  the  Gunnison,  and  which, 
across  the  line  in  Utah,  join  the  Green  to  form  the 
Colorado  as  it  plunges  into  the  abyss  of  the  canons  which 
mark  its  turbulent  course — to  emerge  at  last  in  the  deserts 
of  Arizona,  and  thence  to  make  its  way  southward  into 
the  Gulf  of  California. 

Topographical  Contrasts 

Like  most  of  the  mountain  states,  Colorado  has  star- 
tling contrasts  of  wide-stretching  plains,  expanses  of 
desert,  and  the  predominating  maze  of  mountains.  There 
are  great  valleys  or  parks,  and  narrow  canons,  towering, 
precipitous,  where  there  is  only  room  for  the  rushing 
mountain  torrent.  There  are  plateaus  or  mesas,  forest- 
covered,  carpeted  with  miles  upon  miles  of  wild  flowers. 
There  are  grim,  bare,  rocky  ranges,  shutting  in  narrow 
valleys  which  are  gardens  of  delight,  with  birds  and 
trees  and  flowers,  because  of  the  brooks  that  give  life 
and  beauty  to  the  scene. 

There  are  vast  stretches  of  desert  that  still  have  the 
age-old  charm  for  man — the  charm  that  held  him  in  the 
infancy  of  the  race,  in  the  birthplace  of  humanity — 
with  its  solitude,  its  grim  silence,  its  overwhelming  lone- 
liness, that  speak  to  him  of  the  dawn  of  creation  when 
the  morning  stars  sang  together  and  of  changeless  time 
and  eternity,  beside  which  his  brief  history  is  as  a  watch 
in  the  night.  On  every  hand,  there  are  these  startling 
contrasts  of  the  great  wind-swept  plains,  the  arid,  dusty 
desert,  the  far-stretching  snow-capped  ranges,  and  the 
valleys  of  beauty,  where  there  is  water  and  all  life. 

For  the  first  time  the  visitor  from  the  humid  climates 


140         MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

of  the  East  and  South  has  comprehension  and  under- 
standing of  the  pricelessness  of  water,  in  the  cold  crystal 
streams  that  have  their  sources  in  the  snow-capped  sum- 
mits. He  realizes  then  the  meaning  of  the  poetry  and 
literature  of  the  East  and  of  the  Old  Testament,  in 
which  water  is  the  source  of  all  life,  of  the  constant 
craving  for  its  refreshing  coolness,  and  how  it  has  be- 
come the  synonym  for  all  that  is  purifying  and  reviving. 
For  the  climate  of  Colorado  is  a  dry  and  thirsty  one. 
Only  on  the  heights  is  there  the  precipitation  which  is 
the  life  and  salvation  of  the  commonwealth. 

Rainfall 

No  general  statement  will  cover  either  the  rainfall 
or  the  temperature  of  the  state.  The  differences  in 
altitude  make  corresponding  differences  in  climate.  The 
difference  in  mean  temperature  between  the  summit  of 
Pike's  Peak  and  the  eastern  plains  is  as  great  as  that 
between  Iceland  and  Florida.  Precipitation  ranges 
from  5  to  40  inches  annually,  according  to  the  location 
and  topography  of  the  country.  It  increases  somewhat 
from  east  to  west,  and  it  is  much  heavier  in  the  moun- 
tains than  in  the  plains. 

In  common  with  the  great  plains  states,  Colorado 
experiences  at  intervals  years  of  drought,  that  often 
flock  together — sometimes  two  successive  years,  some- 
times three.  These  dry  years  are  usually  dry  through- 
out, with  only  one  or  two  months  that  show  any  appre- 
ciable rainfall.  Most  of  the  rainfall  is  in  the  growing 
months,  from  April  to  September,  but  in  some  of  the 
mountain  regions  precipitation  is  heavier  in  the  winter 
and  is  in  the  form  of  snow.  The  western  ranges  have 
greater  precipitation  than  the  front  range,  inasmuch  as 
they  are  near  the  "low  pressure"  areas  coming  from  the 


COLORADO  141 

Pacific    Ocean    and    draw    from    them    much    of    their 
moisture. 

So  it  is  that  the  annual  rainfall  on  the  tops  of  the 
high  mountains  is  often  twice  as  heavy  as  on  the  plains. 
It  accumulates  in  winter  in  the  form  of  snow,  and  its 
depth,  extent,  and  the  manner  in  which  it  is  packed  is 
the  measure  of  the  amount  of  water  available  for  irri- 
gation in  the  following  summer  when  the  snow  melts 
and  swells  the  mountain  streams.  In  fact,  the  life  of 
the  state  depends  practically  on  the  precipitation  in  the 
mountains. 

Stimulating  Climate 

The  extreme  ranges  of  temperature  between  summer 
and  winter  are  often  very  marked,  but  the  effect  upon 
human  beings  is  much  modified  by  the  extreme  dryness 
of  the  atmosphere.  There  is  much  wind  movement,  very 
low  humidity,  and  abundant  sunshine.  These  three  fac- 
tors constitute  the  chief  charm  of  Colorado's  surpassing 
climate.  It  is  a  climate  not  alone  health-giving  but  fur- 
nishing the  utmost  stimulus  to  human  action  and  initia- 
tive. The  climate,  together  with  the  beauty  of  Colorado 
scenery,  have  naturally  made  the  state  a  great  health  and 
pleasure  resort. 

Tourists 

The  effect  upon  the  people  of  any  locality  of  a  con- 
stant visitation  of  tourists — health  and  pleasure  seekers — 
depends  much  upon  the  nature  of  the  attraction,  since 
this  in  turn  determines  largely  the  nature  of  the  tourists. 
If  people  come  merely  to  a  fashionable  pleasure  resort, 
they  produce  little  effect  upon  the  economic  life  of  the 
state  save  in  the  immediate  localities  they  visit,  although 
in  some  instances  the  tourist  invasion,  when  persistent 


142         MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

and  in  force,  has  had  a  definite  effect  upon  the  develop- 
ment of  some  phases  of  economic  life  in  such  localities. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  visitors  be  largely  lovers 
of  nature,  and  those  seeking  that  broad  education  to  be 
found  in  intelligent  observation,  they  are  sure  in  time 
to  impart  a  large  share  of  their  cosmopolitan  breadth  of 
view  to  the  people  of  the  region  they  visit.  The  mere 
contact  of  the  residents  with  those  who  bring  with  them 
different  ideas  and  another  trend  of  thought  is  in  itself 
destructive  of  that  provincial  narrowness  of  mind  which 
is  usually  the  sure  portion  of  those  who  stay  constantly 
at  home — whether  on  the  secluded  and  solitary  farm,  or 
in  the  crowded,  congested  center. 

Those  who  came  to  Colorado  as  visitors  came  either 
in  search  of  health  or  else  because  of  the  wondrous  charm 
of  climate  and  scenery.  In  particular  it  was  mainly  the 
lure  of  the  mountains,  which  have  had  a  fascination  for 
humanity  since  the  beginning  of  time. 

Untrammeled  by  Tradition 

The  new  inhabitants  of  the  Colorado  Rockies  differed 
essentially  from  the  mountain  dwellers  in  the  Old  World. 
For  them  there  were  no  traditions,  no  superstitions,  no 
ways  of  the  past  connected  with  the  mountains;  only 
the  sense  of  nature's  splendor  and  majesty  which  appeals 
to  every  phase  of  humanity.  To  them  the  mountains 
were  one  of  the  great  phases  of  nature  to  be  reveled  in, 
to  be  exploited,  to  be  subdued  to  man's  purposes,  pleas- 
ures, and  advantages.  The  mountains  were  the  Everlast- 
ing Hills  of  the  Old  Testament  imagery,  the  abode  of 
beauty  and  sublimity,  the  storehouse  of  incalculable 
riches  hidden  in  their  depths,  the  source  of  those  innu- 
merable streams  which  made  irrigation  and  agriculture 
possible. 


COLORADO  143 

In  Colorado  we  find  two  special  incentives  to 
human  action  and  initiative:  the  inspiration  of  a  health- 
giving  and  invigorating  climate,  and  no  less  the  driving 
force  of  necessity.  It  was  inevitable  that  the  mountains 
should  call  to  the  residents  of  the  Old  World,  who  were 
peculiarly  the  creatures  and  victims  of  the  past,  and  to 
those  living  in  an  atmosphere  of  convention  and  tradi- 
tion, often  perhaps  of  ease  and  comfort,  but  where 
society  was  all  and  the  individual  nothing,  where  iron- 
clad customs  prevailed  and  initiative  had  died.  Such 
victims  of  too  much  civilization  found  in  Colorado  that 
return  to  the  elemental  and  essential  which  every  great 
expression  of  nature — the  desert,  the  plains,  the  ocean, 
the  mountains — brings  out  in  man. 

Hard  Struggle 

In  the  mountains  nothing  is  to  be  had  in  the  way  of 
subsistence  or  wealth-getting  without  strenuous  exertion 
and  struggle.  Fuel  for  creature  comforts — not  for 
manufacturing  merely,  but  for  heat  and  cooking — was 
not  easily  had.  The  forests  were  mostly  upon  the  moun- 
tain heights  and  were  not  immediately  available.  Coal 
was  in  abundance,  but  it  was  all  in  mines  and  had  to  be 
laboriously  dug.  Equally  was  this  true  of  the  untold 
metal  and  mineral  deposits.  Not  only  must  they  be 
mined  but  roads  must  be  constructed  to  the  mines  at 
great  labor  and  expense.  Nor  was  extensive  agriculture 
possible  without  equally  extensive  irrigation,  and  irri- 
gation is  a  complex  affair  in  most  mountain  states, 
requiring  great  expenditure  of  money  and  much  con- 
structive work.  In  the  Uncompahgre  Valley  project, 
for  instance,  to  make  the  waters  of  the  Gunnison  avail- 
able for  needed  irrigation,  a  tunnel  had  to  be  driven 
through  the  base  of  the  mountains. 


144         MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

Advantageous  Production 

One  of  the  economic  necessities  of  every  nation  and 
every  state  is  that  of  being  "self-contained."  There  is 
a  limit,  however,  imposed  by  climate,  topographical  con- 
ditions, situation  in  relation  to  other  nations  or  other 
states,  by  resources  or  lack  of  them,  and  by  the  transpor- 
tation facilities,  as  to  the  ability  of  every  nation  or  state 
to  provide  for  itself  and  within  itself  the  things  w-hich 
its  people  need  for  all  the  complicated  affairs  of  life. 
The  real  problem  is  concerned  with  the  extent  to  which 
nation  or  state  can  provide  within  itself  those  things 
which  it  can  produce  to  better  advantage  or  more  eco- 
nomically than  other  nations  or  states.  That  is  the 
theory,  which  naturally  is  much  modified  in  actual 
practice. 

Early  Agriculture 

The  things  produced  in  Colorado  were,  and  still  are, 
largely  ores  and  similar  raw  material.  In  the  beginning 
there  were  no  manufactures  of  any  moment,  and  the 
chief  food  products  consisted  of  live  stock — the  moun- 
tain parks,  and  some  of  the  plains  near  the  foothills  had 
long  been  grazing  countries.  What  little  agriculture 
existed — far  from  sufficient  for  the  needs  of  the  people — 
was  made  possible  only  by  irrigation. 

Irrigation  is  at  once  the  earliest  and  most  successful 
form  of  agriculture.  It  was  the  basis  and  sustaining 
force  of  the  most  ancient  civilization  of  which  we  have 
any  record.  It  is  likewise  the  most  intensive  and  most 
productive  form  of  modern,  scientific  agriculture.  The 
supply  of  moisture  is  completely  under  the  control  of 
the  agriculturist,  there  are  no  devastating  droughts  to 
contend  with,  and  destructive  rainfalls  are  rare.  More- 
over, there  are  fewer  insect  enemies  than  in  lands  with 


COLORADO  145 

abundant  rainfall,  because  the  surrounding  desert  offers 
no  harbor  for  pests.  Hence  production  per  acre  of 
almost  every  agricultural  product  largely  exceeds  that 
of  humid  soils. 

Irrigation  Works 

There  is  much  water  in  Colorado  from  the  numerous 
streams  flowing  through  the  state,  except  in  those  win- 
ters when  the  snowfall  is  light  on  the  mountain  tops,  or 
in  the  dry  summers  when  rainfall  fails.  But  to  get  the 
water  to  the  fields  is  not  so  simple,  and  in  its  fullness 
requires  time,  labor,  and  much  constructive  work. 
There  were  ditches  to  be  dug,  streams  to  be  diverted, 
tunnels  to  be  bored,  dams  to  be  built.  Irrigation  grew 
fast,  however,  and  in  1899  and  again  in  1909  Colorado 
ranked  first  among  the  states  in  the  number  of  acres 
under  irrigation.  Today  more  than  half  of  the  irrigable 
acreage  in  the  state  is  under  cultivation,  and  more  than 
half  of  the  production  is  in  irrigated  fields.  Nor  is  the 
story  completed.  For  the  possibilities  of  irrigation  have 
not  yet  been  exhausted. 

"Soil  Mulch" 

Moreover,  by  means  of  dry-farming  methods  the  cul- 
tivation of  non-irrigated  lands  has  of  late  years  grown 
with  even  greater  rapidity  than  irrigated  fields.  Lands 
thought  unavailable  for  lack  of  sufficient  precipitation 
have  thus  been  made  productive.  Now  dry-farming  is 
another  most  ancient  form  of  agriculture,  having  origi- 
nated in  those  thirsty  Eastern  lands,  which  were  the 
birthplace  of  man.  It  seeks  to  conserve  the  moisture  in 
the  soil  by  the  simple  process  of  preventing  its  evapora- 
tion. Rainfall  percolates  down  into  the  soil,  both  from 
gravity  and  from  capillary  attraction,  until  it  reaches  a 


146          MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

clay  or  rock  bed  or  some  impervious  underlying  strata. 
As  the  moisture  near  the  surface  evaporates  under  the 
influence  of  heat,  leaving  a  dry  stratum,  the  moisture 
lower  down  ascends  again,  along  the  capillaries — or  chim- 
neys and  vents  in  the  soil — and  against  the  force  of 
gravity.  It  is  exactly  the  process  by  which  an  entire 
cloth  becomes  saturated  if  you  dip  the  lower  end  of  it 
in  water. 

Dry-farming  prevents  the  ascending  moisture  from 
evaporating  by  maintaining  a  shallow  "soil  mulch,"  or 
pulverized  broken-up  surface.  In  this  mulch  there  are 
no  capillaries — they  have  all  been  broken  up — and  the 
ascending  moisture  is  thus  held  and  made  to  supply  the 
plants  instead  of  escaping  through  evaporation.  It  is 
the  least  productive  per  acre  of  any  form  of  agriculture, 
but  it  makes  farming  possible  under  dry  and  semiarid 
conditions  when  all  other  methods  fail.  Because  of  dry- 
farming,  and  also  because  of  the  use  of  silos  as  reser- 
voirs of  cattle  feed  in  dry  summers,  much  land  in  Colo- 
rado has  been  brought  under  cultivation  which  under 
other  conditions  would  be  available  only  for  cattle 
grazing. 

Variety  of  Crops 

So  it  has  come  about  that  the  "lead"  in  the  great 
drama  of  productive  life  in  Colorado  shifted  from 
mining  to  agriculture.  Even  though  mining  gives  no 
sign  of  "playing  out"  but  rather  of  steadily  increasing 
in  production,  agriculture  is  now  the  .great  and  impor- 
tant industry  of  the  state.  Nor  is  this  due  to  naturally 
rich  soils  and  abundant  rainfalls,  but  to  the  native  intelli- 
gence and  initiative,  which  adopted  and  applied  the 
resources  at  hand — water-power  for  irrigation,  and  dry- 
farming  methods  for  the  semiarid  lands. 


COLORADO  147 

During  the  past  score  of  years  the  acreage  under 
cultivation  in  Colorado  has  increased  about  eight  times 
as  fast  as  in  the  remainder  of  the  United  States,  and 
crop  values  three  times  as  fast.  This  great  increase 
covered  a  wide  variety  of  products.  The  state  now 
grows  wheat  and  all  the  small  grains,  corn,  and  the  grain 
sorghums,  alfalfa,  clover,  and  the  other  legumes,  and  is 
one  of  the  leading  producers  of  sugar  beets  in  the  coun- 
try. It  grows  much  fruit,  apples,  peaches,  cherries, 
and  cantaloupes  which  have  a  nation-wide  reputation 
and  distribution.  In  the  growing  and  distribution  of 
fruit  its  people  necessarily  learned  the  vital  principles 
of  community  work  through  co-operative  societies.  It 
has  many  sheep,  hogs,  and  dairy  cows,  and  the  cattle 
upon  a  thousand  hills. 

Colorado  cannot  make  much  of  a  record  in  quantity 
of  agricultural  production,  inasmuch  as  much  of  its  area 
is  in  mountains,  or  is  desert  land  that  cannot  be  reclaimed 
because  of  lack  of  water  and  is  only  available  for  cattle 
ranges.  But  its  products  compare  well  with  those  of 
any  other  state  in  quality;  and  in  respect  to  yield  per 
acre  for  nearly  everything  it  raises,  it  is  in  the  front 
rank. 

Manufacturing 

Naturally  manufacturing  development  was  slow, 
originally  from  lack  of  fuel  and  the  long  distance  from 
the  large  markets.  But  during  the  past  twenty  years  the 
story  has  been  different.  There  are  inexhaustible  sup- 
plies of  coal.  There  is  coal  oil  and  much  potential 
water-power.  The  latter  is  only  partly  used  as  yet,  and 
its  great  possibilities  are  largely  dependent  upon  the  con- 
struction of  storage  reservoirs,  which  would  hold  the 
water  during  flood  seasons  and  furnish  a  uniform  flow 


148          MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

throughout  the  year.  There  are  also  immense  stores  of 
raw  material. 

Hitherto,  manufacturing  has  grown  along  the  natural 
lines  of  native  raw  materials  most  easily  made  and  sold — 
packing  house  products,  sugar  from  sugar  beets,  flour, 
lumber,  manufactures  of  iron  and  steel,  brick,  tile,  stone, 
and  dairy  products.  The  real  problem  of  more  exten- 
sive and  general  manufacturing  in  the  future  seems  to 
be  that  of  marketing — for  the  near-by  demand  is  not  as 
large  as  the  possibilities  of  output,  and  it  is  a  far  cry 
to  the  larger  markets.  The  time  and  expense  of  trans- 
portation are  serious  handicaps. 

This  problem  is  being  solved  in  part  by  the  very 
rapid  development  of  the  area  in  which  Colorado  may 
expect  to  find  much  of  its  market.  This  area  is  growing 
fast  in  population,  in  wealth,  and  in  consequent  wants. 
Moreover,  the  period  in  manufacturing  in  Colorado  has 
been  reached  where  excellence  and  merit  form  a  large 
part  of  the  selling  value  of  much  of  its  manufactured 
material.  In  such  cases  there  is  always  a  constantly 
widening  market  for  articles  of  this  nature. 

Engineering  Skill 

In  the  mountains  of  the  Old  World  and  of  some  of 
our  eastern  states,  lack  of  means  of  communication  was 
and  is  largely  responsible  for  the  lack  of  education 
among  the  people  as  well  as  of  their  unprogressiveness. 
Small  isolated  communities  living  unto  themselves  have 
perpetuated  all  the  superstitions  and  unreasoning  cus- 
toms of  the  past  and  regarded  them  as  sacred  inheri- 
tances. But  Colorado  was  settled  in  the  age  of  railroads, 
though  it  was  hard  to  build  even  a  wagon  road  in  that 
rugged  wilderness.  The  railroads  were  always  marvels 
of  engineering  skill  and  ingenuity.  They  typified  that 


COLORADO  149 

American  resourcefulness  and  adaptability  that  stopped 
at  nothing.  They  went  into  all  forbidden  places  and  did  all 
impossible  things.  In  the  Royal  Gorge  of  the  Arkansas 
River,  when  the  narrow  walls  of  the  precipitous  canon 
left  no  space  save  for  the  roaring  torrent,  the  bridge 
that  conveyed  the  rails  over  the  foaming  waters  was 
anchored  in  the  solid  rock. 

Roads 

Equally  daring  and  equally  impossible  and  ingenious, 
though  not  equally  perfect  in  construction,  were  the 
wagon  roads.  They  clung  at  dizzy  heights  to  the  pre- 
cipitous mountain  sides,  and  often  were  dug  out  of  the 
mountain  itself,  or  else  held  up  by  supporting  trestles. 
They  were  often  mere  trails,  indistinguishable  from  the 
surrounding  mountain,  save  to  the  trained  eye  of  the 
cowboy.  They  had  most  unheard-of  gradients,  full  of 
rocks,  and  desperately  steep. 

Down  these  trails  came  the  old-fashioned  stage-coach 
and  the  sure-footed,  intelligent  team  at  full  lope,  guided 
by  the  real  driver  of  all  the  ages — his  foot  upon  the 
brake;  the  reins  gathered  in  one  hand;  quiet,  watchful, 
yet  apparently  unconcerned ;  flicking  the  leaders  now  and 
then  with  his  long  stinging  whip,  and  calling  them  by 
name  as  they  went  at  full  speed  up  to  the  sharp  turn 
and  at  the  last  moment  swung  around  at  right  angles — 
with  the  soaring  precipice  above,  the  yawning  chasm 
below  and  the  outside  wheels  scarce  six  inches  from  the 
brink  of  the  abyss,  playing  tag  with  death  and  eternity. 
The  romance  and  poetry  of  driving  went  out  with  the 
Jehu  of  the  Stage-Coach!  Later  days  have  brought 
smoother  highways,  gentler  gradients,  and  the  safer 
automobile,  but  roads  are  still  the  life-blood  of  the  econo- 
mic situation  and  steadily  grow  in  miles  and  quality. 


150         MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

School  System 

There  are  many  foreigners  in  Colorado  and  many 
more  of  foreign  parentage.  Yet  the  state  ranks  low  in 
illiteracy  and  high  in  education.  It  is  a  land  of  intelli- 
gence— far  different  from  the  prevailing  conceptions  of 
a  mining  state.  Within  less  than  a  twelvemonth  a  lead- 
ing research  society  in  the  East,  after  long  and  impartial 
investigation,  found  that  the  West,  and  especially  the 
mountain  states,  led  all  the  rest  of  the  Union  in  the 
general  excellence  of  their  public  school  systems.  And 
thereby  hangs  a  tale  of  a  seeming  paradox,  that  is  strange 
and  yet  passing  true. 

"Good  from  Nazareth" 

Colorado,  like  all  the  mountain  states,  began  with 
mines.  There  were  mining  camps  and  dance  halls. 
There  was  shooting  up  of  towns  by  riotous  cowboys  on 
monthly  pay-days.  There  were  train  robberies  and  stage- 
coach hold-ups.  There  were  "bad  men,"  who  were  dead 
shots  and  had  their  private  graveyards.  In  the  literature 
that  pictured  the  Wild  West  as  a  place  of  riotous 
living  and  utter  lawlessness,  there  was  much  exaggera- 
tion and  cheap  theatrical  display.  Yet  the  sober  truth 
was  dramatic  enough  and  in  a  great  many  cases  sordid 
enough. 

But  from  this  welter  of  unrestrained  individualism 
and  of  the  absence  of  all  conventions,  there  emerged  a 
commonwealth  that  was  always  striving  for  ideals — a 
commonwealth  that  lived  its  own  thoughts  and  cared  not 
for  the  sodden,  hopeless  ways  of  the  past,  with  the 
shackles  of  mental  and  social  conventions;  a  common- 
wealth that  made  the  mistakes  of  youth  in  some  of  its 
political  and  financial  dreams,  but  dreamed  those  dreams 
because  they  were  the  visions  of  better  things.  For 


COLORADO  151 

Colorado  was  always  for  true  and  genuine  democracy, 
and  fought  corruption  and  intrigue  in  its  midst  with 
the  courage  of  its  convictions.  It  was  an  early  and 
ardent  advocate  of  woman's  suffrage  when  many  belated 
minds  were  still  delivering  solemn  platitudes  about 
woman's  proper  place  in  the  home  and  not  in  the  arena 
of  real  life.  Colorado  was  for  prohibition  as  the  great- 
est of  all  economic  reforms  possible  to  any  state.  How 
could  the  mining  camp  and  the  dance  hall  produce  the 
state  of  law  and  order,  of  education  and  intelligence? 
How  could  any  good  come  out  of  Nazareth? 

Elemental  Man 

The  decay  of  every  civilization  of  the  past  has  been 
due  to  that  degeneracy  and  degradation  which  find  their 
worst  expression  in  the  great  cities.  It  is  the  story  of 
the  loss  of  those  qualities  which  make  for  manhood  and 
for  womanhood,  and  the  growth  of  deceit,  treachery, 
lying  and  slandering,  and  all  the  evil  crop  of  envy,  hatred, 
and  malice;  of  the  loss  of  truth  and  honor;  of  the 
drying  up  of  the  milk  of  human  kindness;  and  of  the 
unspeakable  shame  of  every  form  of  indulgence.  The 
savage  and  cruel  Huns  and  Goths  who  overthrew  Rome 
had  some  elements  of  courage  and  manhood  compared 
with  the  wretched  crew  of  decadents  who  inhabited  the 
Eternal  City. 

But  the  early  days  of  the  mining  camps  brought  to  the 
front  the  elemental  man.  He  had  all  the  attributes  of 
courage  and  faithfulness,  of  honesty  and  fairness.  De- 
spite his  occasional  excesses,  he  had  his  own  code  of 
ethics  and  morals.  He  was  a  good  sport,  never  like 
the  tough  of  the  slums  who  stabs  in  the  back.  To  this 
day,  in  mountain  and  cowboy  countries,  lying  and  steal- 
ing are  Unpardonable  sins. 


I52         MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

Enduring  Economic  Life 

After  a  time  this  primitive  man  came  to  himself ;  he 
could  no  longer  fill  his  belly  with  the  husks  which  the 
swine  did  eat.  Then  came  the  days  of  vigilance  com- 
mittees, of  the  beginnings  of  law  and  order.  He  did 
not  borrow  a  civilization  from  the  Far  East,  nor  even 
from  the  older  states.  He  made  his  own  code,  imbued 
as  he  was  with  the  spirit  of  the  mountains,  the  plains, 
the  desert.  He  realized,  as  the  world  has  never  before 
realized,  that  the  things,  and  the  only  things,  which 
make  for  enduring  economic  life  are  the  things  of  educa- 
tion, and  of  intelligence,  of  human  understanding  and 
sympathizing  democracy — the  things  of  progress  and 
advancement  in  an  ever-living  present — the  things  of 
orderliness,  yet  of  free  speech  and  action — and  the  sum 
of  all  these  things,  idealism  and  sober  constancy  of  pur- 
pose, which  must  always  be  the  foundation  stones  of 
American  democracy. 


CALIFORNIA 

Race  Consciousness 

One  of  the  many  lessons  taught  by  the  Great  War 
is  the  vitality  and  enduring  character  of  national  and 
racial  feeling  under  most  adverse  and  trying  conditions. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  this  feeling  is  always  more  or 
less  in  evidence  among  subject  nations  who  differ  from 
their  rulers  in  race,  color,  religion,  language,  and  every 
other  vital  human  factor.  In  such  cases  there  is  the 
natural  sense  of  antagonism  of  the  ruled  against  the 
rulers  because  of  being  dominated  by  those  who  are 
foreign  to  them  in  every  aspect.  Poland,  for  example, 
which  had  been  subject  to  foreign  domination  for  over 
a  century  and  a  half,  had  strenuously  resisted  the  con- 
stant effort  on  the  part  of  conquerors  to  root  out  every 
element  which  tended  to  preserve  the  feeling  of  nation- 
ality among  its  people.  Moreover,  this  resentment  against 
alien  control  is  accentuated  by  the  native  consciousness 
of  the  unctuous  hypocrisy  on  the  part  of  the  conquerors 
that  their  domination  is  for  the  best  interest  of  those 
over  whom  they  rule. 

State  Individuality 

So  in  the  study  of  the  states  we  observe  a  similar 
tendency  for  each  to  maintain  a  certain  individuality. 

The  philosophy  and  feeling  of  states  rights,  however 
they  may  be  denned,  have  far  deeper  root  than  merely 
the  legend  of  thirteen  separate  colonies  united  for  a  com- 
mon cause.  In  the  last  analysis  they  rest  as  a  living 
force  upon  the  collective  individuality  of  the  people  of 

153 


I54          MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

each  separate  commonwealth,  an  individuality  unex- 
pected yet  vivid  and  undying  which  differs  in  many 
essential  particulars  from  that  of  other  states,  and  which, 
beyond  a  certain  point,  refuses  to  brook  outside  domi- 
nation. 

In  none  of  the  forty-eight  bodies  which  make  up  the 
Union  is  this  trait  more  pronounced  than  in  California. 
The  story  of  the  Golden  state  really  begins  with  the  dis- 
covery of  gold  in  1848,  for  that  far-reaching  and 
momentous  event  altered  the  history  of  California  for 
all  time.  It  broke  the  spell  of  a  dreamy,  superstitious 
Spanish  and  Mexican  past  and  ushered  in  a  new  com- 
monwealth of  robust  democracy.  The  entire  United 
States  and  much  of  the  civilized  world  immediately 
flamed  with  the  story  of  the  discovery.  There  ensued  the 
modern  epic  poem  of  the  Argonauts  of  '49,  who  little 
dreamed  of  the  creation  they  were  to  hand  down  to  pos- 
terity. 

Argonauts  of  '4 

In  those  days,  when  railroads  were  largely  local) 
California  was  more  remote  from  most  of  the  United 
States  than  was  Europe.  The  overland  route  meant  a 
long  and  heart-breaking  trek.  When  Kansas  and  Ne- 
braska were  passed  there  were  ahead  the  towering 
Rockies  with  the  thirsty,  pitiless  desert  before  and  after 
them.  There  was  death  in  the  path,  in  the  shape  of 
savage  Indian  riders  of  the  plains,  in  the  shape  of  lack 
of  water  and  dearth  of  food.  When  all  these  were  left 
behind,  there  were  still  the  snow-clad,  lofty  Sierras 
barring  the  way  ere  the  gold  fields  were  reached.  By 
sea  there  was  the  long,  long  journey  around  Cape  Horn 
or  across  the  deadly  and  fever-infested  Isthmus  of 
Panama. 


CALIFORNIA  155 

Yet  nothing  stayed  these  Argonauts,  mad  with  the 
lust  for  gold,  and  soon  the  mining  camps  were  over- 
flowing with  humanity  that  seemed  at  once  to  revert 
to  original  type.  There  was  dearth  of  women,  and  so  all 
the  conventionalities  and  ways  of  civilization  were  soon 
forgotten.  It  was  a  man's  country  in  deed  and  thought 
and  much  of  this  still  perseveres  unto  this  day.  The 
miners  were  a  motley  crew ;  adventurers,  men  with  pasts, 
human  birds  of  prey,  mingled  and  jostled  with  the  pick 
of  the  world's  manhood.  Their  blasphemy,  their  dis- 
regard of  every  law  save  that  of  the  jungle,  their  lack 
of  fear  of  man  or  God  or  devil,  their  courage  and  en- 
durance, their  human  sympathy  and  loving-kindness, 
their  faithfulness  unto  death  in  friendship,  have  been 
immortalized  in  "Roughing  It"  and  "The  Luck  of  Roar- 
ing Camp."  The  new  community  was  a  law  unto  itself, 
for  all  the  rest  of  the  world  was  far  away  and  California 
was  separated  from  all  civilization,  old  and  new,  by  the 
towering  Sierras,  the  long  stretches  of  endless  desert, 
and  the  boundless  Pacific.  With  no  past,  no  history, 
none  of  the  illusion  of  tradition  and  legend,  only  the 
present  and  its  realities,  there  was  immense  tolerance, 
coupled  with  a  plentiful  lack  of  prejudice,  save  against 
some  unmanly  things — cowardice  and  treachery,  for  in- 
stance, lying  and  stealing,  for  which  there  were  the 
vigilance  committee  and  the  rope.  Here  too,  of  course, 
law  and  order  had  to  be  maintained  according  to  the 
needs  of  the  new  community,  as  the  human  birds  of 
prey  soon  learned  to  their  undoing. 

Geographical  Isolation 

Inevitably  the  expression  of  this  isolated  pioneer  spirit 
developed  into  an  intense  individualism  which  yet  was 
cosmopolitan,  not  provincial.  For  the  Argonauts  were 


156          MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

from  the  four  corners  of  the  earth  and  the  usual  narrow- 
ness of  the  pioneer  was  largely  absent.  This  individual- 
ism in  turn  assumed  the  collective  form  of  a  state  pride 
which  even  today  probably  has  no  parallel  among  all  the 
forty-eight  commonwealths  of  the  Union.  The  geo- 
graphical isolation  naturally  bred  an  intensity  of  local 
interest,  for  the  physical  remoteness  from  the  rest  of 
the  world  made  state  happenings  matters  of  supreme 
moment.  All  the  energies  of  the  elemental  men  who 
made  up  the  population  centered  in  the  aim  for  state 
development.  Obviously  the  people  of  the  state  must 
supply  their  own  wants  so  far  as  nature  permitted  and 
so  far  as  lay  within  them.  For  all  help  was  afar  off. 

Dry  Climate 

Besides,  there  was  much  in  all  that  lay  around  them 
to  awaken  their  enthusiasm  for  their  adopted  country.  It 
is  a  land  of  infinite  variety  of  scenery,  some  of  it  the 
most  beautiful  and  the  most  impressive  in  all  the  world. 
The  snow-capped  Sierras  are  full  of  crystal  streams,  of 
wondrous  lakes,  of  picturesque  valleys  and  canons,  and 
of  the  oldest  and  most  superb  forests  in  all  nature. 
There  are  great  rivers  and  great  land-locked  harbors. 
There  are  long  stretches  of  desert,  silent,  hostile,  for- 
bidding, yet  with  a  charm  that  can  be  understood  only 
when  experienced.  There  are  naturally  great  differences 
in  temperatures  in  a  land  that  is  780  miles  in  length, 
from  150  to  350  miles  in  width  and  158,000  square  miles 
in  superficial  area. 

Primarily  it  is  a  dry  climate,  because  of  the  general 
distribution  of  the  barometric  "highs"  and  the  fact  that 
the  North  Pacific  "lows"  usually  touch  only  the  northern 
section  of  the  state,  though  they  keep  perpetually  green 
the  western  shores  of  Oregon  and  Washington.  The 


CALIFORNIA  157 

mountains  of  the  Coast  Range  take  much  of  the  mois- 
ture from  the  Pacific,  making  the  great  valley  between 
them  and  the  Sierras  a  land  of  moderate  rainfall,  while 
the  Sierras  absorb  what  moisture  is  left  in  the  ocean 
winds  and  give  it  to  the  country  in  many  streams  for 
irrigation  and  electric  power.  The  annual  precipitation 
varies  from  nothing  at  all  in  Death  Valley  to  75  inches  in 
the  heights  of  the  Sierras  and  the  various  ranges 
of  the  northern  portion  of  the  state.  In  general,  from 
20  to  25  inches  annual  rainfall  is  accounted  sufficient  in 
the  country  outside  of  the  arid  sections,  and  most  of  it 
falls  between  September  and  May.  The  summers  are 
almost  rainless  save  in  the  lofty  mountains.  There  is 
fog  at  times  on  the  more  northern  coasts,  but  on  the 
whole  it  is  a  sunlit  land.  The  nights  are  cool  and  an 
invocation  to  that  sleep  which  knits  the  raveled  sleeve 
of  care. 

Especially  in  Southern  California,  the  charm  of  the 
climate  makes  mere  existence  a  pleasure.  So  it  is  that 
the  land  is  peopled  with  those  from  every  part  of  the 
country  who  have  come  that  they  may  realize  the  mere 
joy  of  living.  The  great  ocean  that  breaks  upon  the 
thousand-mile  coast  line  tempers  the  extremes  of  heat 
and  cold.  It  was  this  combination  of  scenery  and  cli- 
mate that  fired  the  imagination  of  the  early  Argonauts 
and  found  expression  in  the  genius  of  Bret  Harte, 
Joaquin  Miller,  and  a  hundred  lesser  lights. 

Population  Growth 

In  time  the  output  of  gold  decreased,  although  it  is 
a.  large  economic  factor  even  to  this  day,  usually  the 
largest  of  any  of  the  states.  The  growing  population 
must  needs  find  additional  means  of  subsistence  in  the 
isolated  land.  Population  was  increasing,  in  fact,  far 


158         MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

more  rapidly  than  that  of  the  United  States  as  a  whole, 
for  California  was  the  most  widely  known  country  in 
all  the  world.  Not  since  the  romantic  days  of  those 
famous  and  daring  adventurers,  Cortez  and  Pizarro,  had 
there  been  such  world-wide  excitement  and  frenzy  over 
the  rinding  of  unparalleled  treasures  of  precious  metals. 
The  splendor  and  sordidness  of  the  newly  created  scene, 
the  return  to  primitive  existence  of  the  Argonaut  adven- 
turers and  their  rude  untrammeled  life  appealed  with 
compelling  power  to  a  jaded  and  conventional  civiliza- 
tion. To  the  adventurous  and  daring  throughout  the 
globe  California  was  a  land  of  poetry  and  romance,  and 
a  land  of  opportunity  such  as  could  not  be  matched 
elsewhere. 

In  the  decade  1850-60  population  increased  over  300 
per  cent.  Naturally,  prices  of  food  products  rose  to 
fabulous  heights.  So  there  was  every  incentive  to  the 
prosecution  of  agriculture.  This  was  the  second  momen- 
tous epoch  in  the  economic  life  of  the  state  and  blazed 
the  way  for  that  agricultural  development  which  has 
scarcely  a  parallel  elsewhere.  The  dynamic  energy  of 
the  gold-seeker,  which  carried  him  across  the  trackless 
deserts  or  around  the  Horn  on  his  endless  journey,  now 
turned  to  agriculture,  partly  from  hope  of  gain,  partly 
from  necessity.  But  there  could  be  scant  vision  at  that 
time  of  the  actual  agricultural  production  of  the  future, 
in  comparison  with  which  the  gold  output  of  the  early 
5o's  was  to  be  a  thing  of  small  moment. 

Wheat  Raising 

Much  of  the  soil  of  California  is  naturally  fertile.  It 
is  what  is  known  as  "residual  soil,"  having  been  brought 
down  from  the  lofty  mountains  through  endless  ages 
by  the  numerous  streams.  As  California  is  not  a  land 


CALIFORNIA  159 

of  abundant  rain  there  has  not  been  much  "leaching," 
or  washing  out  of  the  priceless  soluble  elements,  which 
thus  remain  to  enrich  the  land.  The  restless  energy  of 
the  new  agriculturists,  however,  turned  to  the  raising 
of  wheat,  for  in  those  days  even  more  than  now  bread 
was  the  staff  of  life.  For  several  decades  by  reason  of 
the  crops  grown  in  the  great  central  valley  California 
was  among  the  principal  wheat-raising  states.  Much  of 
the  grain  was  exported,  for  the  trans-continental  rail- 
ways had  now  crossed  the  country  and  there  was  also 
much  shipping  by  sea. 

Irrigation 

But  there  was  ever  present  a  handicap  for  which 
there  was  no  remedy.  Precipitation  throughout  the 
state,  save  in  the  heights,  is  practically  all  in  the  fall 
and  winter.  So  crops,  in  the  growing  season  from  April 
to  September,  depend  for  moisture  upon  what  is  con- 
served and  held  in  the  soil.  But  there  are  years  and 
seasons  when  the  rains  fail,  for  in  practically  every 
state  west  of  the  Mississippi  River  there  is  the  inescapable 
certainty  of  the  recurrence  of  dry  years,  those  of  insuffi- 
cient rainfall  at  uncertain  yet  sure  intervals.  For  the 
polite  fiction  of  meteorological  science  about  annual 
rainfall  averages  is  invented  merely  to  satisfy  the  un- 
knowing mind  which  seeks  to  average  all  things.  In 
nature  there  are  no  "means,"  or  "averages,"  or  "nor- 
mals," merely  startling  contrasts  forever  repeating  them- 
selves. Consequently  m  the  dry  years  the  crops  were 
in  a  parlous  state. 

The  opportunities  of  climate  and  soil  were  too  great 
and  too  universal  to  depend  entirely  upon  the  rainfall 
alone  when  other  means  of  securing  moisture  lay  close 
at  hand.  There  was  nothing  grown  in  temperate  and 


160          MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

subtropical  regions  that  could  not  be  grown  in  California 
if  the  needed  moisture  could  be  had.  So  the  thoughts 
of  the  settlers  turned  to  the  oldest,  most  certain,  and 
most  productive  of  all  agricultural  devices — irrigation. 
That  was  the  foundation  of  the  greatest,  oldest,  and 
most  splendid  civilizations  of  the  past,  Egypt,  Babylon, 
Nineveh,  Carthage,  and  those  of  Roman  Africa.  When, 
through  the  indifference,  degeneracy,  and  decay  of  the 
people,  the  irrigation  works  were  neglected  or  destroyed, 
the  luxurious  capitals  of  these  great  empires  perished 
off  the  face  of  the  earth  so  that  for  many  centuries 
their  very  sites  were  unknown  and  forgotten  among 
men. 

Desert  Civilization 

There  was  now  to  be  witnessed  in  a  modern  demo- 
cratic state  a  recrudescence  of  the  civilization  of  the 
desert.  There  was  much  waste  land,  some  in  the  central 
valley  and  much  more  in  the  southeast,  where  for  untold 
centuries  fierce  heats  and  the  rocks  and  sands  of  the 
lonely  and  forbidding  desert  held  undisputed  sway. 
There  was  scant  vegetation,  in  many  regions  none  at 
all,  and  the  only  animal  life  was  that  of  poisonous  rep- 
tiles. But  there  was  also  much  water,  in  the  under- 
ground flow  that  could  easily  be  tapped,  and  in  the  many 
streams  that  came  down  from  the  heights  of  the  Klamath 
and  Siskiyou  Ranges  and  the  far-flung  ramparts  of  the 
Sierras.  The  latter  especially  were  the  source  of  Cali- 
fornia's agricultural  and  economic  life.  The  warm, 
moisture-bearing  winds  from  the  Pacific  broke  into  "a 
dust  of  blue  rain"  on  the  snow-capped  heights,  and  went 
on  eastward  dry  and  parched,  robbed  of  all  their  moisture. 
Save  for  the  Sierras,  California  would  share  the  fate 
of  the  arid  states  on  her  eastern  border. 


CALIFORNIA  161 

Co-operation 

The  days  of  gold  mining  as  the  state's  principal 
industry  were  over,  and  those  of  agriculture  were  just 
beginning.  But  the  fierce  and  dominant  individualism 
of  the  mining  community  had  to  be  replaced  by  the  spirit 
of  co-operation  as  the  condition  of  success,  especially  in 
irrigation.  For  irrigation  is  essentially  a  matter  of  com- 
munity and  teamwork.  Few  irrigation  projects  of  any 
moment  are  the  creation  or  the  possession  of  the  indi- 
vidual. Water  rights,  besides,  are  things  in  common 
and  matters  of  legislation  and  precise  adjustment.  Hence 
it  is  that  the  dim  historic  civilizations  of  the  reclaimed 
desert  tell  always  the  story  of  a  people,  a  single  unit 
with  many  laws  and  strict  enactments,  which  rose,  flour- 
ished, and  died  as  a  nation  leaving  not  a  wrack  behind. 

For  a  commonwealth  of  its  great  size,  there  was  but 
a  small  proportion  of  arable  land  in  California.  There 
were  large  swamps,  most  of  which,  however,  might  be 
reclaimed ;  there  was  a  wide  stretch  of  hopeless  desert 
in  the  southeast;  and  there  were  uncultivatable  moun- 
tains. Of  the  total  area  about  28  per  cent  was  in  farms 
and  only  about  half  of  that  was  improved.  And  in  the 
course  of  time  about  one-third  of  the  improved  land 
was  under  irrigation.  The  charm  of  irrigation  is  its 
certainty.  Given  enough  water  and  there  is  rarely  any 
question  as  to  a  bounteous  harvest.  For  the  crops  are 
cultivated  usually  under  cloudless  skies  and  free  from 
the  predatory  insects  which  are  the  bane  of  agriculture 
in  the  humid  lands. 

Diversification 

In  1869-70  when  general  railroad  transportation  was 
established  in  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  irrigation  began  to 
undergo  large  development,  and  a  decade  later  the  irri- 


162         MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

gated  district  was  greatly  increased  by  reason  of  the 
development  of  fruit  raising.  At  this  period,  only  a 
generation  after  the  real  beginning  of  the  state,  it  was 
an  easy  prophecy  for  the  student  as  to  what  the  future 
had  in  store.  Given  a  country  of  boundless  resources, 
and  a  people  whose  spirit  and  energies  had  been  created 
by  the  stern  necessity  of  a  battle  for  very  existence,  the 
only  possible  result  was  an  era  of  great  and  varied 
development. 

The  first  problem  was  to  take  advantage  of  climate 
and  irrigation  and  to  try  the  venture  of  a  diversification, 
unknown  in  America  hitherto,  of  all  the  agricultural 
products  included  in  the  possibilities  of  the  situation. 
Along  with  such  production  must  go  the  all-important 
factor  of  distribution.  For  it  was  a  far  cry  to  the  great 
cities  of  the  East  where  the  surplus  products  of  the 
state  must  be  marketed,  in  the  face  of  all  manner  of 
competition,  domestic  and  foreign.  It  was  a  long  haul 
to  these  consuming  centers  and  the  cost  of  transportation 
was  heavy.  There  must  be  established  a  reputation  for 
the  quality  and  appearance  of  its  fruits  and  garden 
truck,  so  that  they  may  not  be  sold  on  their  price  alone. 
It  was  likewise  well  to  raise  in  great  quantities  such 
products  as  were  not  peculiar  to  the  rest  of  the  country 
and  whose  novelty  and  rarity  would  be  special  best- 
selling  factors. 

Growers'  Associations 

There  was  only  one  way  to  bring  these  things  about 
and  that  was  by  those  co-operative  "growers'  associa- 
tions" which  alone  make  possible  to  many  individual 
growers  the  intelligent,  efficient,  and  profitable  market- 
ing of  their  products.  These  associations  have  repre- 
sentatives in  all  the  leading  markets  thus  keeping  con- 


CALIFORNIA  163 

stantly  in  touch  at  all  points  with  prices  and  with  possi- 
bilities of  consumption.  Moreover,  the  associations 
know  all  the  intricacies  of  packing  and  preparing  com- 
modities and  the  innumerable  details  of  transportation. 
As  a  result  of  their  activity,  in  due  time  California  fruits 
and  vegetables  had  a  name  and  reputation  in  every  sec- 
tion of  the  Union.  They  possessed  the  distinction  of 
personality  even  in  districts  where  they  were  merely 
different  from,  rather  than  superior  to,  the  native  product. 
They  enjoyed  that  best  of  all  advertisements,  criticism 
and  comment,  sometimes  friendly,  sometimes  disparag- 
ing; in  all  instances  they  were  at  least  subjects  of  dis- 
cussion. They  went  eastward  as  they  still  continue  to 
go  by  thousands  upon  thousands  of  carloads  annually. 
California  citrus  fruits,  oranges,  lemons,  and  grape 
fruits,  have  practically  driven  the  foreign  imported  prod- 
uct from  the  home  market.  In  large-crop  years  Cali- 
fornia ships  50,000  carloads  of  citrus  fruits,  netting  the 
growers  about  $50,000,000.  And  in  1916  there  were 
shipped  out  over  106,000  carloads  of  fresh  fruits  and 
vegetables,  16  per  cent  of  the  amount  shipped  by  all 
the  forty-eight  states. 

Fruits  and  Vegetables 

The  next  step  was  the  drying  of  fruits  and  the  can- 
ning of  fruits  and  vegetables,  because  of  the  advantages 
of  small  and  condensed  bulk  in  shipping  and  of  preser- 
vation for  an  indefinite  period.  These  methods  of  food 
preparation  and  preservation  gave  great  opportunities 
for  advertisement  and  for  new  markets  where  the  mat- 
ter of  time  in  transit  or  in  use  were  of  small  moment. 
The  state  raises  about  50  per  cent  of  all  the  peaches  in 
the  United  States,  but  most  of  them  are  marketed  in 
either  dried  or  canned  form.  The  grape  culture  became 


164         MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

an  extensive  industry,  producing  table  grapes,  wines, 
and  raisins,  and  now  practically  supplying  the  demand 
throughout  the  country  which  once  knew  only  the  for- 
eign article.  Some  of  the  statistics  are  rather  staggering. 
Here  is  one  item.  The  output  in  1917  of  cured  fruits — 
apples,  peaches,  raisins,  prunes,  and  the  like — was  340,000 
tons.  Of  similar  magnitude  is  the  production  of  nuts, 
especially  walnuts  and  almonds,  whose  annual  output  is 
reckoned  in  thousands  of  tons.  It  is  literally  true  that  all 
agricultural  products  of  any  importance  which  are  raised 
anywhere  in  the  United  States  are  now  grown  in  Cali- 
fornia. The  state  is  now  second  in  the  Union  in  rice 
production,  and  since  the  Imperial  Valley  was  redeemed 
from  the  desert  by  the  silt-bearing  waters  of  the  Colorado 
River  it  is  reckoned  among  the  cotton-producing  states. 
Moreover  it  is  already  growing,  on  a  large  scale,  the 
date  palm  brought  from  the  Sahara  and  is  experiment- 
ing with  other  tropical  fruits. 

California  no  longer  produces  the  agricultural  staples 
in  great  quantities,  but  rather  a  multitude  of  many  things 
far  more  profitable  and  on  which  it  is  building  an  endur- 
ing reputation  as  a  source  of  supply.  In  1917  there 
were  shipped  out  of  the  state  212,000  carloads  of  fruits, 
nuts,  vegetables,  olives,  in  all  their  various  forms,  fresh, 
dried,  and  canned.  All  this  is  a  marvel  of  intelligent 
cultivation,  and  even  more  of  intelligent  and  efficient 
business  distribution  in  which  California  is  joined  by 
her  sister  commonwealths  of  the  Pacific  Slope,  equally 
remote  from  their  nearest  markets. 

Commercial  Fruit  Growers 

It  is  a  curious  and  interesting  fact  that  the  growers 
of  commercial  fruit  on  a  large  scale  are  among  the  most 
intelligent  of  agriculturists.  They  must  know  many 


CALIFORNIA  165 

things.  They  must  be  familiar  with  some  phases  of 
meteorology,  because  the  weather  is  at  once  their  best 
friend  and  their  worst  enemy.  They  must  have  some 
knowledge  of  entomology,  to  protect  their  crops  from 
predatory  insects.  They  must  know  the  chemistry  of 
soils,  for  each  vegetable  and  each  special  fruit  thrives 
best  in  its  own  peculiar  soil.  And  they  must  of  course 
be  acquainted  with  the  general  principles  of  agriculture 
and  horticulture.  Moreover,  they  must  be  entirely  at 
home  in  the  complexities  of  distribution,  else  all  their 
labor  of  production  is  in  vain.  When  yields  are  large 
and  remunerative  such  men  are  liberal  spenders  and 
like  most  intelligent  purchasers  have  ever  an  eye  to 
merit  and  quality.  These  irrigation  farmers  in  Califor- 
nia are  among  the  most  progressive  and  intelligent  peo- 
ple in  the  state. 

Manufactures 

Though  agriculture  is  and  always  will  be  the  greatest 
of  the  state's  industries,  there  has  been  active  and  intelli- 
gent development  in  every  productive  line.  There  are 
many  hydroelectric  plants,  because  of  the  numerous 
streams  which  furnish  the  needed  power  for  manufac- 
turing. There  is,  moreover,  abundant  fuel  in  the  great 
oil  fields. 

Naturally  California  manufacturing  turned  to  the 
use  of  native  raw  materials,  producing  lumber,  beet 
sugar,  flour,  and  wine,  and  developing  petroleum  refin- 
ing, cement-mills,  and  the  various  canning  industries. 
Later  on  all  sorts  of  things  were  manufactured,  from 
finished  materials  in  iron  and  steel  to  many  of  the  varied 
products  of  modern  economic  life.  By  1914  the  state 
had  climbed  to  ninth  place  in  the  Union  in  manufac- 
turing. 


166          MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

California  has  many  minerals  other  than  gold:  cop- 
per, pottery  clay,  lead  and  zinc,  both  silver  and  quick- 
silver, coal,  and  natural  gas,  and  a  rather  long  list  of 
others. 

It  catches  and  cans  many  salmon  in  northern  streams. 
It  has  always  been  a  country  with  much  live  stock.  Live- 
stock raising  had  been  one  of  the  important  pursuits 
before  the  country  was  taken  over  from  Mexico.  There 
were  great  haciendas  or  ranches  of  150,000  to  200,000 
acres,  remnants  of  the  feudal  methods  of  agriculture 
which  have  always  marked  Spanish  rule  in  the  Americas. 
Although  it  is  largely  a  mountainous  and  desert  region, 
it  has  many  automobiles  and  many  roads  because  it 
spends  large  sums  for  them. 

Sequoia  Gigantea 

With  its  forest-clad  mountains  it  is  one  of  the  great 
lumber-producing  states.  It  has  oaks,  redwoods,  gum 
trees,  and  many  species  of  coniferous  trees,  cedars,  firs, 
and  yellow  and  sugar  pines.  It  has  also  the  superb 
sequoia  gigantea.  These  magnificent  trees  are  the  oldest 
living  specimens  of  organic  life.  The  concentric  rings 
of  some  of  those  which  have  been  felled  indicate  a  span 
of  life  which  antedates  all  known  recorded  history.  It 
is  claimed  that  one  of  them  shows  four  thousand  rings, 
one  for  each  year,  and  that  counts  have  been  made  of 
eight  thousand  rings  and  more.  These  monarchs  of  the 
forest  saw  Egypt,  the  most  ancient  of  all  civilizations, 
rise,  flourish,  and  perish.  They  were  old  when  Cyrus, 
the  Persian,  conquered  Babylon;  old  when  the  Israelites 
fled  from  Egypt;  old  when  the  mound-builders  peopled 
this  country;  they  date  back  to  those  dim  days  when 
man,  emerging  from  the  primeval  stage,  first  began  the 
ways  of  civilization.  Along  with  the  snow-clad  Sierras 


CALIFORNIA  167 

and  the  Valley  of  the  Yosemite,  they  have  been  the  in- 
spiration of  many  a  California  singer  whose  verse,  all 
unmeant  by  him,  has  been  one  of  the  potent  reasons  of 
the  unceasing  pilgrimage  to  California  from  all  parts  of 
the  earth,  and  multitudes  of  the  pilgrims  are  greatly 
content  to  end  their  journeys  there. 

Schools 

With  respect  to  interest  in  education  and  the  amount 
spent  upon  it  California  is  in  the  forefront  of  the  states. 
In  1910 — the  latest  present  available  census  report — 
California  was  the  twelfth  state  in  population,  and  judg- 
ing from  the  number  of  settlers  who  flock  to  her  annually 
this  is  at  least  her  present  rank.  In  1916  she  was  fifth 
in  her  total  state  expenditures  for  public  education,  there 
being  only  four  states,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Illinois, 
and  Ohio,  ahead  of  her.  Indeed,  taking  the  expenditures 
per  capita  she  led  all  the  states,  with  an  expenditure  of 
50  per  cent  more  per  capita  than  the  commonwealth  next 
in  rank.  The  enrollment  in  the  public  schools  grew  from 
174,000  in  1883  to  604,000  in  1918,  while  in  the  latter 
year  the  state  expenditures  for  all  educational  purposes 
were  $37,000,000.  The  giant  young  State  University  had 
205  students  in  1883,  but  in  1919  it  had  outstripped  all 
but  one  of  the  universities  in  the  country,  with  an  attend- 
ance of  9,000  students.  The  population  is  low  in  illiter- 
acy despite  the  many  foreigners  and  an  undue  propor- 
tion of  Asiatics. 

Hostility  to  Caste 

The  ever-present  state  pride  is  not  content  that  the 
younger  generation  shall  lose  anything  in  the  way  of 
opportunity  because  of  relative  geographical  isolation 
from  the  great  centers.  Most  significant  of  all,  the  inter- 


i68          MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

est  in  education  is  only  another  form  of  expression  of 
that  democracy  which  is  ever  hostile  to  caste  or  special 
privilege  and  which  realizes  that  the  public  schools,  along 
with  a  free  and  independent  press,  are  the  two  vital  fac- 
tors which  make  possible  democratic  government  in  this 
country.  In  comparisons  of  this  nature  it  must  always 
be  remembered  that  the  difference  in  state  expenditures 
for  education,  either  actually  or  proportionally,  between 
the  states  west  of  the  Alleghanies  and  north  of  the  Ohio 
River  line  of  latitude,  and  the  remainder  of  the  Union, 
is  marked  principally  in  the  amount  of  funds  devoted  to 
higher  education  rather  than  that  apportioned  to  the  pub- 
lic schools.  As  a  living  force,  both  in  educational  and 
economic  life,  the  state  university  has  its  present  widest 
expression  in  the  Middle  West  and  West,  although  it 
originated  in  the  South. 

Spirit  of  Enterprise 

What  the  economic  future  holds  for  California  is 
even  easier  to  see  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago.  The 
spirit  of  further  development  of  all  constructive  and  pro- 
ductive possibilities  has  a  momentum  which  cannot  be 
stayed.  For  its  underlying  impulse  and  initiative  is  in 
that  inherent  and  conscious  democracy  of  which  Cali- 
fornia furnishes  so  remarkable  a  type.  It  is  a  democracy 
singularly  devoid  of  the  narrow  provincialism  which  is  so 
often  the  concomitant  of  local  pride,  alike  in  the  small 
town  and  in  the  great  center.  It  is  a  democracy  which 
knows  much  travel  especially  in  its  own  country,  which 
has  wide  tolerance,  free  speech,  and  free  thought.  It  is 
imbued  likewise  with  a  cosmopolitanism  because  of  the 
state's  position  midway  between  the  western  nations  and 
the  Orient,  which  makes  its  people  in  great  degree  citi- 
zens of  the  world. 


CALIFORNIA  169 

The  economic  life  of  the  future  lies  along  the  path  of 
democracy.  Our  economic  troubles  today  are  largely 
because  of  our  departure  from  the  ways  of  democracy, 
especially  in  that  unduly  developed  class  consciousness 
which  seeks  its  own  betterment  at  the  expense  of  all 
other  classes;  being  thus  the  antithesis  of  that  true  de- 
mocracy, which  seeks  first  the  general  welfare  of  the  many 
and  is  content  to  share  therein. 

There  are  various  expressions  of  democracy  although 
in  every  case  it  is  the  same  in  vital  substance.  The 
democracy  of  North  Carolina  differs  from  that  of  Kan- 
sas in  outward  form,  the  democracy  of  Wisconsin  from 
that  of  Ohio,  and  the  democracy  of  California  from  all 
of  them.  In  a  peculiar  degree  the  democracy  of  Cali- 
fornia is  in  that  triumphant  stage  which  is  a  forerunner 
of  the  time  when  a  knowledge  of  democracy  shall  cover 
the  earth  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea.  It  is  a  prophecy  of 
the  world  civilization  that  is  to  come. 


EPILOGUE 

Community  Feeling 

With  state  after  state,  in  these  studies  of  the  last 
quarter-century's  development,  economic  and  business 
advance  seem  to  have  turned  upon  the  peoples'  attitude 
toward  two  great  issues  or  questions.  They  seem  to  be 
fundamental.  Whatever  the  natural  resources  of  a  state, 
and  whatever  the  stimulus  from  external  conditions, 
progress  has  been  slow  and  halting  until  these  great 
questions  have  been  settled  rightly.  The  states  which 
early  took  the  right  attitude  on  these  fundamentals  have 
forged  ahead  from  the  start. 

One  of  the  vital  matters  has  been  the  transmutation 
of  the  spirit  of  individualism — a  natural  result  of  the 
vigorous  independence  bred  in  frontier  communities — into 
the  spirit  of  co-operation  and  community  feeling.  The 
French  have  a  true  saying  that  all  men  and  all  people 
have  the  defects  of  their  qualities.  Individualism  made 
this  country  what  it  is  and  keeps  it  sound  and  wholesome 
amid  all  the  disintegrating  features  of  some  elements  of 
modern  civilization. 

Individualism  is  the  essential  quality  which  dis- 
tinguishes us  from  the  nations  of  the  Old  World,  con- 
tented with  things  as  they  are  rather  than  as  they  should 
be,  sunk  in  apathy  and  often  despair,  or  at  all  events 
burdened  with  the  thoughts  and  ways  of  the  past  which 
check  their  aspirations  for  better  things.  Equally  is 
individualism  the  one  continuing  cause  of  that  national 
devotion  to  ideals  without  which  as  a  nation  we  shall 
surely  perish. 

170 


EPILOGUE  171 

Partners  in  the  State 

But  if  our  country  is  to  progress  further,  individual- 
ism must  develop  into  co-operation.  That  has  been 
shown  again  and  again  in  these  studies.  In  the  case  of 
North  Carolina,  of  Wisconsin,  of  California,  the  success- 
ful solution  of  the  problem  of  existence  and  progress  was 
to  be  traced  directly  to  the  development  of  the  spirit  of 
team-play  among  the  people  of  the  state. 

The  change,  moreover,  is  a  change  not  so  much  in 
spirit  as  in  the  form  of  its  manifestation.  The  individual 
citizen  has  lost  no  part  of  his  capacity  and  disposition  to 
think  for  himself,  of  his  energy  and  resourcefulness,  but 
he  is  learning  to  think  in  terms  of  the  community  as  a 
whole.  He  regards  himself  not  as  a  subject  leaning  upon 
a  bureaucratic  parental  government,  but  as  a  partner  in 
a  state-wide  enterprise.  His  contribution  to  the  part- 
nership venture  is  not  obedience  merely  but  intelligent 
and  constructive  activity. 

Team-Play 

The  attitude  of  disciplined  individualism  finds  its  ex- 
pression in  the  game  which  in  its  intense,  sustained,  or- 
ganized struggle  is  peculiarly  characteristic  of  the  Amer- 
ica of  the  present  generation — football.  A  well-coached 
football  team  in  one  of  our  great  universities  sinks  all 
thought  of  individual  self  that  it  may  win  for  the  glory 
of  its  college.  To  this  end  it  submits  to  hard  and  grind- 
ing training  in  which  obedience  and  discipline  are  the 
chief  factors.  Each  member  of  the  team  seeks  the  com- 
mon weal.  He  learns  that  success  can  be  had  only  by 
teamwork  and  forget  fulness  of  self.  He  must  sub- 
ordinate his  own  ideas  and  his  own  wishes  to  those  of 
the  one  in  command.  Yet  in  the  last  analysis  when  dis- 
cipline and  teamwork  and  obedience  have  had  their  say, 


172          MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

it  is  still  an  unquenchable  and  indestructible  individual- 
ism, though  co-ordinated  and  controlled,  that  carries  the 
ball  over  the  goal.  Such  was  the  lesson  which  we 
learned. 

The  spirit  here  shown  was  manifested  on  a  vaster 
scale  in  the  Great  War  when  the  individualistic  American 
soldier,  his  powers  once  disciplined,  went  up  against  the 
trained  machine-like  fighter  of  Germany  and  beat  him 
at  his  own  game. 

The  Middleman 

One  of  the  most  notable  evidences  of  the  substantial 
development  of  community  enterprise  has  been  in  con- 
nection with  the  distribution  of  farm  products  in  state 
after  state.  Little  strength  has  been  wasted  in  mere 
denunciation  of  the  middleman — as  an  economic  para- 
site, etc.  The  shrewd  farmers  soon  perceived  that  the 
middleman  existed  because  there  was  a  distinct  place 
for  him  in  the  general  scheme  of  things,  and  that  current 
methods  of  distribution,  uneconomical  and  inefficient,  un- 
doubtedly persisted  because  nothing  better  had  as  yet 
been  developed. 

The  marketing  of  perishable  food  products  is 
especially  influenced  by  the  peculiarities  of  human  nature. 
The  average  consumer  is  unreliable  as  a  steady  and  con- 
stant customer  for  food  products.  He  has  a  tendency  to 
seek  some  other  source  of  supply,  often  without  reason 
and  without  either  warning  to  or  consideration  for  the 
producer  from  whom  he  has  been  buying.  Consumers, 
moreover,  are  a  peripatetic  race  especially  in  a  large  city, 
and  their  constant  shifting  of  residence  means  that  the 
farmer  must  constantly  find  new  customers  which  he 
rarely  has  the  time,  inclination,  or  ability  to  do.  House- 
hold exigencies  are  often  such  that  supplies  are  not  taken 


EPILOGUE  173 

by  the  consumer  regularly,  and  the  produce  being 
usually  of  perishable  nature  must  be  sold  at  once  to  some 
stranger,  not  easy  to  find,  or  else  be  a  total  loss  to  the 
farmer.  The  matter  of  payments  is  often  most  unsatis- 
factory because  housekeepers  on  the  whole  are  given  to 
credit  rather  than  to  cash  purchases,  and  the  margin  of 
profit  to  the  farmer  is  usually  too  small  to  permit  this 
method  with  its  customary  proportion  of  losses. 

Marketing  Associations 

Those  farmers  who  attempted  in  any  large  way  to 
market  their  products  directly  to  the  consumer  quickly 
ran  into  hopeless  difficulties  in  connection  with  book- 
keeping and  credits  and  all  the  machinery  of  distribution, 
which  soon  rendered  their  venture  futile  and  inoperative. 
The  common  sequence  was  the  farmers'  seeking  out 
some  reliable  middleman  whose  business  it  was  to  handle 
all  the  details  of  distribution. 

There  was,  however,  one  other  way  out,  namely,  the 
establishment  of  co-operative  organizations  among  the 
farmers  by  which  they  could  do  their  own  marketing  in 
a  large  way  and  thus  eliminate  wastes  and  improve 
methods.  In  the  beginning  the  farmer  was  not  a  ready 
convert  to  the  principles  of  co-operation,  that  is,  for  any 
great  length  of  time.  It  was  easier  to  organize  him  than 
to  have  him  stay  organized.  His  lonely  life  on  the 
farm  bred  an  underlying  suspicion  in  his  nature  that  was 
easily  aroused  and  not  easily  appeased.  His  individuality 
was  generally  far  stronger  than  his  class  consciousness. 
But  the  idea  of  co-operation  made  constant  headway 
and  was  much  helped  in  its  spread  and  permanence  by 
the  broadening  effect  upon  the  farmer's  mental  vision 
and  temperament  of  rural  free  delivery  of  mail  and  the 
use  of  automobiles. 


174          MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

Business  Methods 

We  have  noted  the  work  of  the  co-operative  organiza- 
tions, especially  in  Wisconsin,  North  Carolina,  and  Cali- 
fornia. They  are  active  in  many  other  states.  They  are 
rapidly  passing  beyond  the  stage  of  sentimentality  and 
enthusiasm  to  the  substantial  stage  of  strictly  business 
methods  and  purposes.  For  they  must  make  good  by 
economic  results  else  their  own  members  soon  lose  faith 
in  them.  There  has  developed  now  all  over  the  United 
States  a  complex  and  highly  organized  system  of  co-oper- 
ative work  in  posting  the  producers  as  to  the  markets 
that  need  their  goods  and  such  prices  and  terms  as  may 
be  had.  It  is  suicidal  to  ship  perishable  goods  to  a  mar- 
ket already  glutted,  and  thus  have  them  decay  before 
they  can  be  sold.  Because  of  this  vast  and  complicated 
system  of  co-operation  among  producers,  stretching  all 
over  the  country,  fruits  and  vegetables,  butter,  eggs,  and 
milk,  are  now  to  be  obtained  in  all  sections  and  in  all 
seasons  at  prices  which  would  not  otherwise  be  possible. 

We  have  arrived,  that  is  to  say,  at  that  period  in  the 
life  both  of  state  and  of  nation  when  we  can  no  longer 
live  to  ourselves  alone.  Our  future  lies  along  the  lines 
of  future  development  of  the  spirit  expressed  in  team- 
work and  pulling  together  which  found  such  signal  and 
forceful  expression  during  the  war,  and  of  which  the 
co-operative  marketing  associations  are  a  beginning. 

Education  and  Freedom 

Another  of  the  vital  matters  in  the  growth  of  a  state 
is  its  attitude  toward  education.  The  states  that  have 
progressed  most  notably  have  been  distinguished  for  a 
systematic  and  continuous  effort  to  improve  the  effective- 
ness and  the  quality  of  the  individual  citizen.  The  state- 
ment has  been  often  made  but  little  realized  that  Ameri- 


EPILOGUE  175 

can  democracy  could  not  exist  at  all  save  for  a  free  press 
and  the  public  schools.  Over  and  over  again,  in  these 
studies,  we  have  found  that  the  capacity  of  a  state  to 
respond  to  the  stimulus  of  opportunity  or  even  of  neces- 
sity has  been  conditioned  upon  the  educational  status  of 
its  people. 

But  education  in  its  true  sense  is  no  longer  a  local 
affair.  If  it  is  to  reach  and  aid  all  the  people  of  the 
commonwealth  it  must  be  a  state-wide  matter.  In  a 
state  where  education  is  a  matter  principally  of  dis- 
united localities,  either  in  interest  or  in  the  appropriation 
of  necessary  funds,  the  percentage  of  literacy  is  always 
low. 

Moreover,  the  value  of  education  to  any  community 
or  state  lies  as  much  in  its  nature  as  its  extent.  Educa- 
tion in  Germany  was  probably  more  wide-spread  than  in 
any  other  country  and  illiteracy  was  rare.  But  there  was 
something  inherently  wrong  and  vicious  in  a  system 
which  caused  so  many  young  boys  to  commit  suicide  be- 
cause of  failure  to  pass  scholastic  examinations,  and 
which  created  a  public  sentiment  that  not  only  palliated 
but  upheld  the  inhuman  brutalities  of  the  German  troops 
during  the  Great  War. 

Patriotism 

We  are  apt  to  think  of  patriotism  as  a  sentiment, 
stirred  largely  by  appeals  to  the  higher  side  of  our  nature 
and  exemplified  chiefly  in  the  sacrifices  which  a  war 
always  calls  forth.  Yet  in  the  case  of  the  German  peo- 
ple we  saw  this  sentiment  degraded  until  it  served  as 
excuse  for  every  form  of  brutality  which  was  commit- 
ted "for  the  Fatherland."  So,  too,  we  are  prone  to 
regard  the  sentiment  of  patriotism  chiefly  as  something 
to  be  called  forth  by  the  need  of  protecting  the  land  of 


176          MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

our  birth  or  adoption  in  the  stress  of  battle  and  conflict. 
There  comes  often  the  bitter  irony,  when  the  conflict  is 
over,  that  we  revert  from  ideals  of  nation-wide  sacrifice 
and  fellowship  to  the  Old  Adam  of  political  and  class 
strife.  If  the  war  taught  us  anything  it  was  that  we 
need  to  revise  and  enlarge  our  ideas  of  patriotism  so 
that  in  times  of  piping  peace  it  shall  embrace  all  the 
homely  obligations  of  every-day  life;  likewise,  that  as 
we  freely  recognize  the  call  of  our  country  for  all  that 
we  can  give,  her  rulers  shall  make  and  keep  our  country 
worthy  of  living  for  as  well  as  dying  for. 

Progress 

This,  after  all,  is  the  ultimate  service  of  the  right  sort 
of  education,  that  of  keeping  the  community  alive  and 
progressive.  China  is  the  only  one  of  all  the  ancient 
civilizations — Egypt,  Babylon,  Nineveh,  Persia,  Rome — 
which  has  been  preserved  to  our  day.  Many  things 
which  we  have  discovered  or  invented  anew  were  fa- 
miliar to  her  in  the  dim  historic  past.  Yet  China  has 
solved  nothing  and  done  nothing  of  vital  and  enduring 
moment.  Her  much-vaunted  philosophy  is  a  mere  intel- 
lectual cult  of  words,  childish  in  its  phraseology  and  as 
remote  from  human  life  and  its  affairs  as  the  distant 
stars  in  the  Milky  Way.  Her  wisdom,  like  that  of  ex- 
treme age  whether  in  men  or  nations,  is  mere  despair  or 
mute  submission  to  relentless  fate.  Her  religion  has 
degenerated  into  blind  superstition,  burdening  and  ham- 
pering every  effort  at  advancement  and  progress.  Her 
incalculable  resources  lie  unheeded  and  almost  un- 
touched. Only  within  the  past  half  century  has  it 
dawned  upon  some  of  her  leading  minds  that  her  sole 
hope  of  advancement,  indeed  of  continuance  as  a  sepa- 
rate and  independent  nationality,  lies  in  breaking  com- 


EPILOGUE  177 

pletely  with  the  past  and  freeing  herself  from  the  swad- 
dling-clothes of  inheritance  and  tradition. 

France  is  one  of  the  oldest,  most  historic,  most  culti- 
vated, most  artistic  countries  in  Europe.  She  has  been 
one  of  the  richest.  In  some  lines  of  manufacture,  those 
requiring  taste  and  skill,  she  is  pre-eminent.  In  others, 
more  prosaic  but  more  modern,  she  is  a  generation  behind 
the  times.  Of  internal  development  in  the  way  of  new 
construction  and  adaptation  of  old  ways  to  newer  and 
more  improved  methods  there  is  woeful  lack.  Reverence 
for  the  past,  its  customs  and  its  observances,  hangs  like 
a  pall  over  economic  and  social  life. 

Thrift,  essential  and  necessary  within  reason  and 
constantly  exalted  by  financial  lights  as  the  supreme 
virtue,  is  an  immovable  barrier  to  development  and  ex- 
pansion when  carried  to  the  point  of  penuriousness.  For 
it  is  perfectly  obvious  that  business  thrives  upon  spend- 
ing and  not  upon  saving.  It  is  bitter  irony,  as  well  as 
tragedy,  that  the  millions  of  francs  laboriously  saved  up 
by  thrifty  French  peasants  and  invested  in  Russian  se- 
curities have  been  hopelessly  lost,  when  their  investment 
in  internal  improvements  might  still  have  been  yielding 
increasing  dividends. 

Seeking  Always  That  Which  Is  Better 

In  our  own  country  it  is  a  matter  of  common  knowl- 
edge that  certain  states  and  communities  which  are  old- 
est in  time  and  experience  are  in  some  ways  the  least 
progressive  in  the  ways  of  internal  improvement  and 
consequently  in  all  business  possibilities.  They  often 
lack  those  modern  developments  in  sanitation,  comforts, 
convenience,  transportation,  and  education  which  are 
matters  of  course  in  many  of  the  young  and  hustling 
commonwealths  beyond  the  Mississippi  River. 


178          MERCHANDISING  STUDIES  OF  STATES 

The  one  thing  that  can  keep  a  community,  state,  or 
nation  from  stagnating  in  this  way  is  education.  You 
cannot  have  progress  without  that  noble  discontent  which 
seeks  always  that  which  is  better.  Education  of  the 
type  developed  in  some  of  these  new  commonwealths, 
wide-spread,  broad,  thorough,  and  consecrated  to  the 
public  welfare,  is  the  tonic  element  that  rights  off  the 
fatal  lethargy  of  age  and  prosperity  and  keeps  the  com- 
munity always  young. 


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